Minister for Women and Gender Equality's appearance at the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women (FEWO) - May 18, 2023

Opening remarks

Merci and thank you so much, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to discuss the Main Estimates of Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE).

Before I continue, I want to take a moment to highlight the excellent work that the Members of this Committee do, and their important role in moving gender equality forward in Canada. I appreciate all of your insights.

It is an honour to meet with you today on the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg people.

We're all here because we know that Canadians deserve a society where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed, and as we know, there is a clear link between social and economic prosperity - and gender equality.

Today I'm happy to speak about how Women and Gender Equality Canada's Main Estimates puts that perspective into concrete actions.

It's clear that our government remain committed to promoting equality, protecting human rights, and addressing longstanding discrimination against women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ communities. Because when women, girls, and gender diverse people succeed, everyone benefits.

My department is receiving $291 million via the Main Estimates, of which, there is $225 million in Grants and Contributions. This funding will support our work, but most importantly, it will go toward equity-seeking organizations that help to drive systemic change.

These organizations know what's best for their respective communities, they know how to improve economic outcomes for the people they represent, they provide leadership opportunities for women and 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians, and they work to prevent and address gender-based violence.

This why our government is committed to maintaining these historic funding levels, with a particular focus on Indigenous women, women with disabilities, 2SLGBTQI+ communities, and newcomer, Black, racialized women.

This commitment was clear in Budget 2023 – which included $160 million over 3 years, beginning this fiscal year, for the Women's Program to provide funding to organizations in Canada that specifically serve women.

But we know that the pandemic seriously impacted the work of these organizations, which is why WAGE also re-allocated $20 million of existing funding to extend support for 1-year for existing capacity-building projects under the Women's Program. This critical extension gives organizations the help they need to care for their communities.

But going back to the pandemic, I think it is important to describe just how quickly we acted to get funding to front-lines organizations that were under pressure…

We stepped up and provided $300 million in emergency funding to organizations across the country. This funding has reached over 1,400 frontline organizations and helped more than 2 million people experiencing violence. It helped them to get the support they need; it helped them to find a safe place to stay; and it helped them to get out of unsafe situations.

The emergency funding was necessary to address, what experts have called "the shadow pandemic" - but we know what they we need to take the lessons from the pandemic, and start to find longer term solutions, which is why our work with provinces and territories is so important.

And I am proud to say that since the last time I presented on Main Estimates, and mentioned the Budget 2021 investments - we have worked with provinces and territories to support crisis hotlines all across the country - and we have signed agreements with 9 provinces and territories, for a total of $23.2 million.

I want to highlight this because I think its important. These agreements aren't just ink on a document – these investments mean that when women and children are fleeing violence, when they pick up the phone and call for help - there is someone on the other end of line to take their call. I'm not exaggerating when I say that these crisis hotlines save lives.

But like I mentioned earlier, our government has taken into consideration what we can do right now to support front-line workers and how we can implement long-term solutions in every single province and territory…

This led us to the historic launch of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence – that was launched alongside Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers responsible for the Status of Women.

The 10-year Plan is a key partnership to engage all Canadians in ending gender-based violence (GBV) by increasing prevention efforts, reaching underserved and at-risk populations, and stabilizing the gender-based violence sector.

Budget 2022 provided $539.3 million over 5 years to support provinces and territories in implementing the National Action Plan - and we're currently working with provincial and territorial governments to finalize agreements. I'm in close contact with my counterparts, as is my department, to make sure that we will be receiving action plans from each province and territory.

These plans must concretely show which actions they will be taking to end GBV they must be aligned with our agreed upon principles - and once they are signed off, the funds will flow quickly.

In addition, last year we launched another initiative to promote equality and combat discrimination: through Canada's Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan. This Action Plan was supported by an investment of $100 million over 5 years from Budget 2022, and was developed in collaboration with community leaders, researchers, and organizations.

It builds on the work completed in recent years to address the persisting disparities faced by 2SLGBTQI+ communities – all while helping frontline organizations prioritize and sustain 2SLGBTQI+ community action. 

But we know that again, we can't do this alone - which is why we're working closely with other government departments to implement the 6 priority areas and are continuing to report on our progress to Canadians through WAGE's website.

We've also made progress on Gender Based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus). Both the Auditor General and the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology recently released reports on GBA Plus. Both acknowledged progress but found that opportunities remained to address certain long-standing barriers.

We take these recommendations seriously, as seen through the Management Response and Action Plan, and WAGE, the Privy Council Office (PCO) and the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) have been delivering on the commitments, while also looking to address the Senate Committee's recommendations.

In fact, we celebrated Gender-based Analysis Plus Awareness Week earlier this month. This year's theme, 'Building a More Inclusive Future for All' reinforces the intersectional purpose of GBA Plus.

Finally, I wanted to raise to the Committee that Menstrual Hygiene Day is coming up on May 28. One of my mandate commitments is to develop a national Menstrual Equity Fund Pilot to address period poverty in Canada – because far too many women, girls, trans, and non-binary people struggle to afford menstrual products.

This lack of access, along with period shame and stigma, makes it hard for people to fully participate in public life. The department has been tirelessly working with partners to develop this pilot and we will have more to say regarding the Pilot in the coming months.

Thank you. I'm happy to answer questions from the members of the Committee.

Budget 2023

Issue/question:

How does Budget 2023 support feminist and equality-seeking organizations?

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada recognizes that women's, 2SLGBTQI+, and other equality-seeking organizations have been at the forefront of social change. They are key drivers for gender equality.
• Budget 2018 and 2019 provided major investments to these organizations, to support them in addressing systemic barriers to equality in Canada.
• Now, Budget 2023 proposes to provide $160M over 3 years, starting in 2023-24, to sustain historic funding levels for Canadian women's organizations and equity-deserving groups through the Women's Program.
• We will also continue to support the important work of equality-seeking organizations through existing investments under the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.

Key information:

Investments

Women's Program Investments

• Budget 2023 proposes to provide $160 million over 3 years, starting in 2023-24, for the Women's Program to provide funding to women's organizations and equity-deserving groups, with a particular focus on Indigenous women, women with disabilities, members of the 2SLGBTQI+ communities, and newcomer, Black, racialized, and migrant women.
• Since 2015, WAGE has invested over $380M under the Women's Program in over 900 projects to advance women's equality, including:
  • $100M in historic Budget 2018 funding for projects to strengthen the capacity of the women's movement. Up to $20 million in additional funding is supporting a 1-year extension of existing projects until March 2024.
  • $160M in Budget 2019 funding for projects tackling systemic barriers for women in the areas of leadership, economic security and prosperity, and gender-based violence. This funding was primarily used for the Feminist Response and Recovery Fund to provide flexibility for organizations to be responsive to the broad and diverse systemic issues that need to be tackled to build back better, support a feminist response and recovery from the pandemic, and advance gender equality across Canada.

Previous Budget Commitments:

National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence

• Budget 2022 invested $539.3M over 5 years, starting in 2022-23, "to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence".
• Budget 2021 invested $601.3M over 5 years, starting in 2021-2022, "to advance towards a new National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence."

2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan

• Budget 2022 committed $100M over 5 years to implement the Action Plan.
• Budget 2021 announced $15M over 3 years for a LGBTQ2 Project Fund.
• Budget 2019 invested $20M to enhance the capacity of 2SLGBTQI+ organizations.

Menstrual Equity Fund

• Budget 2022 committed $25M over 2 years to establish a national pilot for a Menstrual Equity Fund.

Overall Investment

• Since 2015, the Department has funded over 1,200 projects providing more than $556M, to work towards the idea that everyone can participate fully in Canadian society. This includes:
  • $181.9M to Indigenous projects (33% of all WAGE investments)
  • $63.9M to projects for racialized communities
  • $67.6M to projects in northern, remote, or rural projects
  • $52.9M to non-status, immigrant, or refugee projects
  • $47.4M to youth focused projects
  • $83.5M to Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexually and gender diverse people (2SLGBTQI+) projects
  • $31.1M to projects targeting low income communities
  • $32.6M to official language minority communities
  • $14.9M to projects targeting people with a disability

Investments in the 2SLGBTQI+ Community

• Since 2019, WAGE has invested $42.5M to amplify the 2SLGBTQI+ movement, including:
  • $27.5M through the 2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund to enhance the capacity of 76 2SLGBTQI+ organizations. As part of the 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, a new $22.5M call for proposals for this fund launched on March 13 and will close on May 9, 2023.
  • $15M through the 2SLGBTQI+ Projects Fund towards projects addressing barriers to 2SLGBTQI+ equality. As part of the 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, $35M in new projects funding was announced in August 2022.

Investments to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence (GBV)

• Since 2015, WAGE has invested $110M in more than 190 projects to prevent and address GBV.
• Additional investments currently underway include:
  • $55M in funding to bolster the capacity of Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ organizations to provide GBV prevention programming. A Call for Proposals closed in March 2022.
  • $105M in funding to enhance the GBV Program. A Call for proposals to Address GBV through Promising Practices and Community-based Research closed in February 2023.
  • $539.3M to support the implementation of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (GBV NAP).

Menstrual Equity Fund

Issue/question:

How is the Government addressing period poverty through its Menstrual Equity Fund?

Suggested response:

• Menstrual products are a basic necessity however too many women, girls, trans, and non-binary Canadians struggle to afford these products.
• In Canada, it is estimated that 1.24 million people who menstruate struggle to access necessary products and 61% of grassroots organizations are unable to meet demand for period products.
• Lack of access, along with period stigma and shame, make it hard for people to fully participate in school, work, and other aspects of public life. This is not an equitable situation.
• Budget 2022 committed to establish a national pilot for a Menstrual Equity Fund that will help make menstrual products available to Canadians in need as we work to understand better how to address period poverty.
• We designed the pilot through extensive research and engagement, including looking at initiatives in other jurisdictions and gaining on-the-ground knowledge from grassroots organizations.
• This is just the latest step the Government has taken to improve menstrual equity in Canada, building on its efforts to increase access in First Nations schools and in federally regulated workplaces.

Key information:

Investment

• [Redacted]

Results

• The results of the information gathering and stakeholder engagement have informed the design and implementation plan for the pilot. The results of the pilot will inform the way ahead on menstrual equity. It will also position WAGE to undertake awareness activities to address stigma, shame, and the lack of information related to menstruation and menstrual cycles.

Background:

• Women and Gender Equality Canada has been:
  • working with key federal partners, engaging with the provinces and territories and reaching out to community organizations and experts across Canada to help develop the Menstrual Equity Fund pilot to ensure that it will be as useful as possible in determining the way ahead;
  • supporting research to inform the pilot, including an environmental scan to identify existing projects and organizations already conducting work in the menstrual equity sector, and a literature review of the social impacts of period poverty.
• The Menstrual Equity Fund pilot will be the latest step the federal government is taking to support menstrual equity in Canada:
  • On November 5, 2021, the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Indigenous Services (ISC), released a statement that all students in First Nations operated schools on reserve and in federal schools across Canada will have access to free menstrual products. The initiative is currently being coordinated by ISC regional offices, with First Nations and First Nations-designated education organizations on reserve determining how to get and distribute menstrual products to their students.
  • The 2021 mandate letter for the Minister of Labour reiterates the Government of Canada's commitment to provide free menstrual products in federally regulated workplaces. Proposed Regulations Amending Certain Regulations Made Under the Canada Labour Code (Menstrual Products) were developed following extensive consultations with stakeholders, experts and the Canadian public. On October 14, 2022, Minister of Labour, Seamus O'Regan Jr. invited interested parties to provide feedback on the regulations by November 13, 2022.
• These actions support work being done at the provincial level. British Columbia became the first province to provide free menstrual products in schools in 2019. Since then, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Manitoba have also begun initiatives to provide free menstrual products in schools.

Research:

• Menstrual equity is the unhindered access to menstrual management products, including access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, access to educational materials on the topic, and the ability to discuss issues pertaining to menstruation without any fear or shame.
• Period poverty, or menstrual inequity, is the inability to access menstrual products due to financial limitations or other barriers. Marginalized populations such as refugees, those who are homeless, sex workers, trans and non-binary people, Indigenous communities, and people living in rural, remote, and Northern communities face additional barriers to accessing menstrual supplies and are at greater risk of period poverty.
• Canadians experiencing period poverty, especially those who are homeless, can adopt poor menstruation management practices such as using menstrual products for too long. These practices can have detrimental impacts on the overall mental and physical health of menstruators, including sexual and reproductive health.
• A 2022 Plan International Canada survey found that:
  • 1 in 5 (21%) girls, women, and people who menstruate in Canada struggle to afford menstrual products for themselves or their dependents.
  • More than 4 in 5 respondents who menstruate (83%) believe period products are too expensive.
  • 1 in 5 (22%) ration or use products longer than they should because they can't afford more. This rises to 33% among those with a household income of under $50,000 and 48% for Indigenous respondents.
  • A barrier between those who identify as women/girls and men/boys persists. A majority of those who menstruate continue to feel compelled to hide menstrual products as they go to the washroom (74%) and not let male colleagues/peers know when they have their period (66%).

Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus)

Issue/question:

What is the government doing to improve the implementation of GBA Plus?

Suggested response:

• As Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, I have been working closely with several colleagues to deliver on joint mandate commitment to enhance Gender-based Analysis Plus (or GBA Plus), so that it better captures the lived experiences of all people in Canada.
• For almost 30 years, GBA Plus has been applied within the federal government, and is now firmly embedded in all government key decision-making processes.
• Over the course of time we have identified several successes, gaps, and challenges – some of which were also identified by the Auditor General of Canada.
• While progress is undeniable, there continue to be opportunities to strengthen GBA Plus. That is why I was mandated to work with colleagues to enhance the framing and parameters of this analytical tool.
• Insights on how to enhance the intersectional design and application of GBA Plus have come from several sources. Most recently, we welcomed a Report from the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology.
• The Committee's findings and recommendations, to which we plan to respond as we work across government, will help shape options for a forward-looking tool and approach to GBA Plus. This will help ensure that government initiatives address ongoing or emerging challenges that stand in the way of equality, fairness, and inclusion.

Background:

• Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA Plus) is an analytical tool used to support the development of responsive and inclusive policies, programs and other initiatives. GBA Plus is a process for understanding who is impacted by the issue, identifying how the initiative could be tailored to meet diverse needs of the people most impacted, and anticipating and mitigating any barriers to accessing or benefitting from the initiative. GBA Plus is an intersectional analysis that goes beyond biological (sex) and socio-cultural (gender) differences to consider other factors, such as age, disability, education, ethnicity, economic status, geography, language, race, religion, and sexual orientation.
• WAGE strives to:
  • Increase awareness, and understanding of GBA Plus;
  • Enhance capacity and expertise for GBA Plus across federal government;
  • Foster collaboration between a broad range of actors to capture new knowledge and share best practices; and
  • Act as a hub for GBA Plus knowledge and expertise.

Senate Committee (SOCI) Report on GBA Plus

• On March 30, 2023, the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology (SOCI) released its report on GBA Plus entitled All Together - The Role of Gender-based Analysis Plus in the Policy Process: reducing barriers to an inclusive intersectional policy analysis.
• The focus of the report was to study the role of GBA Plus in the policy process, the barriers to its implementation and how to support a more fulsome intersectional analysis. From September to October 2022, the Committee heard from Indigenous groups, civil society organizations, academia, the Auditor General and WAGE.
• While acknowledging the progress made on GBA Plus, the barriers to GBA Plus they identified included:
  • A lack of focus on intersectionality
  • The branding of GBA Plus may contribute to it being misunderstood
  • GBA Plus must be more culturally relevant and better integrate lived experiences
  • Lack of information on whether GBA Plus is achieving equity, diversity and inclusion outcomes
  • Persistent barriers to training, implementation and tracking outcomes
  • A need to improve how we share data
  • A need to also support external stakeholders with an interest in applying GBA Plus
  • A need to better communicate the purpose and impact of GBA Plus so that Canadians understand it and demand it
• The Committee made 15 recommendations to address these gaps, most of which align with efforts underway to strengthen GBA Plus.

Office of the Auditor General (OAG) Audit of GBA Plus

• In May 2022, the Auditor General of Canada published its third audit of GBA Plus. Previous OAG audits of GBA Plus were undertaken in 2009 and 2015.
• Overall, the audit found that while Women And Gender Equality (WAGE), the Privy Council Office (PCO) and the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) had partially addressed recommendations from the 2015 audit, little progress had been made in the implementation of GBA Plus within the federal government and longstanding barriers to the implementation of GBA Plus persist.
• The audit included 7 recommendations for WAGE, PCO and TBS to address the persistent barriers and to strengthen the application, accountability and transparency of GBA Plus across the federal government.
• In November 2022, PCO, TBS and WAGE submitted to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts a plan to address the OAG recommendations. The plan includes meaningful action, including developing new training to increase understanding of intersectionality, and introducing a new framework to ensure departments have the internal capacity to support GBA Plus application.

Strengthening GBA Plus

• GBA Plus is the result of a sustained commitment over more than 25 years. It has evolved over time and is guided by a process of continuous improvement. Changes have been informed by a wide range of evidence and inputs.
• 2021 mandate letter commitments direct you to lead the evaluation process of GBA Plus with the goal of enhancing the framing and parameters of this analytical tool, with particular attention to intersectional analysis, so that it better reflects the lived experiences of all people in Canada.
  • The Ministers of Housing, Diversity and Inclusion; Crown-Indigenous Relations; Rural Economic Development; Tourism and the Associate Minister of Finance; Employment, Workforce Development, Disability and Inclusion; and the President of the Treasury Board have been mandated to support this work and will be critical partners in advancing the plan.
• To advance this mandate letter commitment, WAGE is facilitating an engagement process in collaboration with central agencies and departments to ensure a consistent and coordinated approach that will leverage the existing networks and relationships of key departments with equality, diversity, and inclusion mandates.
• To date, consultations with deputy heads, GBA Plus Champions and other key federal government officials have been undertaken, and consultations with external stakeholders will take place over the coming weeks. It is expected that a draft "What we heard" report on these consultations will be ready by June 2023.
• Other recent inputs to strengthen GBA Plus include Senator Mary Jane McCallum's (ISG) introduction of Bill S-218 in November 2021. The Bill proposes to include a provision in the Department for Women and Gender Equality Act to require the Minister for WAGE to examine every Government Bill introduced in either House of Parliament and to table a statement that sets out potential effects of the Bill on women, particularly Indigenous women. As of April 2023, Bill S-218 is at Second Reading in the Senate.

Gender Budgeting

• The Canadian Gender Budgeting Act came into force in December 2018, enshrining gender budgeting in the federal government's budgetary and financial management process.
• Similar to recent budgets and fiscal updates, Budget 2023 includes a gender budget statement and the publication of more than 200 GBA Plus summaries of budget measures, continuing a practice introduced in Budget 2019. In terms of the GBA Plus of Budget 2023,
  • Most (75%) GBA Plus were initiated early or mid-stage of the initiative, which is indicative of the continuous efforts to better integrate GBA Plus earlier and throughout the budget process. Moreover, 41% of GBA Plus were initiated early, which is higher than Budget 2022, for which 32% were initiated early.
  • The Budget reports that 14% of measures identified a potential barrier to access or participation for a specific demographic group. For most measures (90%) where a barrier was identified, a proposed approach to removing obstacles for groups experiencing these barriers was included.

GBA Plus as part of the implementation of the Impact Assessment Act

• WAGE supports the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada and partner departments on the implementation of the 2019 Impact Assessment Act. This legislation requires that proponents of major initiatives, including resource projects, apply GBA Plus to project planning and implementation to assess potential project impacts on different groups of people.
• Through this legislation, WAGE is working to ensure that the negative impacts of projects are mitigated, including those related to gender-based violence, and that the benefits of these projects are felt equally among different groups of people.
• Both Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations Canada are important partners in the implementation of this legislation and in the application of GBA Plus from an Indigenous perspective.

Supporting Women's Shelters, Sexual Assault Centres, and Other Organizations Providing Gender-Based Violence Supports and Services across Canada during COVID-19

Issue/question:

What did the Government do to support people facing gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada moved swiftly so that those facing gender-based violence had a safe place to turn to during the pandemic.
• Women and Gender Equality Canada provided $300 million in COVID-19 emergency funding.
• This funding reached over 1,400 organizations, resulting in more than 2 million individuals experiencing violence having access to supports across Canada.
• This investment is above and beyond the ongoing work and investments of the Government of Canada to address gender-based violence.
• Today, we continue this work as we negotiate agreements with the provinces and territories, which will provide $539.3 M to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence. With this funding each jurisdiction will be able to address their respective gender-based violence priorities and needs.

Key information:

Investment

• Since April 2020, Women and Gender Equality has provided $300M in COVID-19 emergency funding to over 1,400 organizations that provide services and supports to those experiencing gender-based violence (GBV) across the country:
  • The COVID-19 Economic Response Plan provided an initial $90M in 2020.
  • Budget 2021 committed $200M over 2 years, starting in 2021-22, to enhance the capacity and responsiveness of organizations.
  • Due to high demand since 2020, WAGE leveraged an additional $10 million in existing program funding.
• Funding has supported organizations in every province and territory, including those serving Northern, rural and remote communities.
• WAGE worked with 3 organizations to deliver this funding across the country:
  • $121.78 M to Women's Shelters Canada to redistribute to women's shelters across the country (outside of Québec);
  • $115.89 M to Canadian Women's Foundation to further distribute to sexual assault centres, women's organizations, and other organizations providing supports and services to those experiencing GBV (outside of Québec); and
  • $61.89 M for the Government of Québec to redistribute to women's shelters and organizations that support victims of sexual and domestic violence across the province.

Results

• Since April 2020, more than 2 million individuals experiencing GBV had a safe place to turn to because of this funding.
  • More than 550 organizations used the funding to deliver important programs or services.
  • Nearly 500 organizations used the funding for additional staff or overtime; 448 organizations hired new staff.
  • More than 430 organizations used the funding for communications and outreach purposes.

Project examples

• COVID emergency funding is supporting immediate needs such as protective equipment, childminding, helping women find alternative housing, and additional staff coverage and capacity. Funding is also being used to test and evaluate service approaches adapted in response to the pandemic and for long-term planning to prepare for a post-pandemic environment.

Background:

• From the start, Canada's COVID-19 response measures have been informed by a feminist and intersectional analysis to ensure that our approach provides support to those who need it most, including women, girls, and Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexually and gender diverse people (2SLGBTQI+) experiencing GBV.
• Building on critical support for the GBV sector, Budget 2021 provided $30M over 5 years for WAGE to support crisis hotlines to serve the urgent needs of more individuals in Canada experiencing gender-based violence.
  • WAGE is distributing this funding to crisis hotlines through bilateral agreements with provincial and territorial governments.
  • Negotiations with provinces and territories are almost complete, with 11 agreements signed to date.
• Budget 2022 provided $539.3M over 5 years, starting in 2022-23, "to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence".
  • Launched on November 9, 2022, one of the goals of the National Action Plan is to set out a framework for anyone facing GBV to have reliable and timely access to culturally appropriate and accessible protection and services.
  • Bilateral funding agreements with each province and territory will support the National Action Plan's implementation.

National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence

Issue/question:

What is the status of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence?

Suggested response:

• Gender-Based Violence is one of the most pervasive, deadly, and deeply rooted human rights violations of our time.
• The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence was launched on November 9, 2022.
• The endorsement of this 10-year plan was a concrete step in fulfilling a long-standing commitment of Federal, Provincial and Territorial governments to work together towards a Canada free of Gender-Based Violence.
• Building on the Budget 2021 investment of $601.3M over 5 years to advance toward a National Action Plan, Budget 2022 provided $539.3M over 5 years, starting in 2022-23, to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.
• Federal funding will flow through bilateral agreements with each province and territory. Negotiations are currently underway.

Key information:

Investments

• Budget 2022 invested $539.3M over 5 years, starting in 2022-23, "to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence".
• Budget 2021 invested $601.3M over 5 years, starting in 2021-2022, "to advance towards a new National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence":

Gender-Based Violence Program Enhancement

• $105M over 5 years for WAGE to enhance its Gender-Based Violence Program, with funding initiatives that engage men and boys and increasing funding for initiatives to stop human trafficking, which includes providing support to at-risk populations and victims and survivors of human trafficking. It will also provide support for testing and implementing best practices to address gender-based violence, with a focus on projects that could be scaled at the national level.
• Over $31.1M has been invested in 74 projects focused on addressing gender-based violence and supporting those who experience it.
• In December 2022, WAGE launched a Call for Proposals to address GBV through promising practices and community-based research. The call closed in February 2023 and submitted proposals are currently under review.

Crisis Hotlines

• $30M over 5 years for WAGE to support crisis hotlines across Canada. This will help to serve the urgent needs of more individuals in Canada experiencing gender-based violence by offering more robust services, resources, and supports to prevent the escalation of gender-based violence.
• WAGE will distribute this funding to crisis hotlines through bilateral agreements with provincial and territorial governments.
• Negotiations with provinces and territories have almost all been completed. Signed agreements with Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island have been announced.

Emergency COVID-19 Funding

• Since April 2020, the Department has provided $300M in COVID-19 emergency funding to 1,400 organizations, including women's shelters, sexual assault centres, and other organizations providing critical supports and services to those experiencing gender-based violence.
• This funding ensures the continuity of services and enhances the capacity of organizations that provide critical and often life-saving services and supports for women, girls, and Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexually and gender diverse people (2SLGBTQI+) experiencing violence. Because of this funding, more than 2M individuals experiencing violence had a safe place to go and access to supports across Canada.

Results

• Bilateral funding agreements with provinces and territories have not yet been completed, and therefore there are no results directly linked to the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence at this time.
• Through the federal GBV Strategy, which is the Government of Canada's contribution to the National Action Plan, significant progress has been made since 2017 to address gender-based violence:
  • 3 new national surveys establishing baselines on gender-based violence and filling critical data gaps;
  • Establishment of the GBV Knowledge Centre;
  • Funding for qualitative community-based research to better understand the impacts of gender-based violence and prevention efforts;
  • Competency training for Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers and staff;
  • Development and testing of promising practices in areas including: sexual violence, technology-facilitated violence, youth dating violence, gender-based violence at post-secondary institutions, human trafficking, and intimate partner violence;
  • Enhanced supports for survivors of gender-based violence within the Canadian Armed Forces; and,
  • Strengthened trauma-informed responses amongst federal corrections facility staff.

Project Example

• Bilateral funding agreements with provinces and territories have not yet been negotiated, and therefore there are no project examples directly linked to the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence at this time.

Background:

• It is estimated that every year, the federal, provincial and territorial governments in Canada spend billions on healthcare, justice, and social system responses to gender-based violence. It is further estimated that Canadian businesses lose millions due to loss of productivity and inability of individuals to work as a result of gender-based violence. Most importantly, individuals experiencing gender-based violence pay considerable direct and indirect costs in terms of opportunity costs and impacts throughout their life course and across generations.
• The 2019 Speech from the Throne committed to taking greater action to address gender-based violence by developing a National Action Plan. This commitment was reinforced in the December 2019 mandate letter, which directed the Minister for Women and Gender Equality to build on the foundation laid by the federal GBV Strategy and move forward with the development of a National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.
• In January 2021, federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers responsible for the Status of Women endorsed the Joint Declaration for a Canada Free of Gender-Based Violence, which confirmed common vision, principles, and goals for responding to gender-based violence.
• The 2021 Speech from the Throne and December 2021 mandate letter to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth once again underscored the Government's commitment to move forward with a 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. Specifically, Minister Ien was mandated to "move forward with the development of a 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, begin negotiations with the provinces and territories within a year, and accelerate the establishment of a dedicated Secretariat".
• The National Action Plan was made possible through close collaboration between federal, provincial, and territorial governments and Indigenous partners. It was also informed by engagement with survivors, front-line service providers, gender-based violence experts, academics, and advocates, as well as recommendations from a wide range of stakeholders and experts.

Intimate Partner Violence

Issue/question:

What is WAGE doing to address intimate partner violence in Canada?

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada remains committed to preventing and addressing all forms of gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, which is one of the most prevalent.
• Since the launch of Canada's Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in 2017, several initiatives to address intimate partner violence have been funded, including furthering research and promoting healthy relationships.
• The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, supported by a Budget 2022 investment of $539.3M and launched in November 2022, continues this important work at a national level. It serves as the Federal-Provincial-Territorial framework for a Canada free of gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence.
• Our Government will continue to listen and respond with compassion to victims and survivors, and to work in collaboration with provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, and stakeholders, to end gender-based violence.

Key information:

Investments

• Through It's Time: Canada's Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence, launched in 2017, several initiatives related to intimate partner violence have been funded, including:
  • Over $30M in research on gender-based violence, including in a new national survey that provided the first comprehensive understanding of intimate partner violence in Canada (WAGE);
  • Investments to promote healthy relationships (Public Health Agency of Canada); and
  • Investments to support Canadian Armed Forces members and their families who may be affected by gender-based violence (Department of National Defence).

Results

• WAGE has supported a number of activities to prevent and address gender-based violence. Through its Women's Program, GBV Program and the Human Trafficking Initiative, since 2015, WAGE has invested over $288M in 600 projects to prevent gender-based violence and to support survivors and their families.
  • In 2021-22, completed projects developed over 700 resources to increase awareness about services and supports; and how to prevent gender-based violence and to support survivors. More than 500 partnerships were created to implement training on trauma informed service delivery, transform care for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexually and gender diverse people (2SLGBTQI+) survivors of GBV, and implement new supports to help survivors of GBV navigate the legal system.
  • Because of these projects, nearly 1.5 million individuals gained access to programs and supports related to gender-based violence, including access to awareness-raising and prevention services, counselling, court services, and trauma-informed victims' services.

Project Examples

• Between April and December 2018, Statistics Canada (funded by WAGE) administered the first cycle of the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces, the first nationally representative survey of its kind on gender-based violence. It collected information on Canadians' experiences of safety at home, in the workplace, in public spaces and online. Data from this survey has informed the federal Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence and the development of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. Planning is underway on the next cycle of this survey, due to take place in 2024-25.

Background:

• Intimate partner violence, also known as spousal or domestic violence, is one of the most prevalent forms of gender-based violence. It refers to multiple possible forms of harm—physical, sexual, financial, emotional, or psychological, as well as stalking and coercive control—by a current or former intimate partner(s), dating partner(s) or spouse(s) and can occur in public spaces, private spaces, and can be technology-facilitated.
• More than 11 million people in Canada aged 15 and over have experienced some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime—6.2 million women and 4.9 million men. This is especially true for Indigenous women. About 6 in 10 Indigenous women have experienced some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime.
• In Canada in 2021, there were 114,132 victims of intimate partner violence. 79% of victims of police-reported intimate partner violence incidents were women and girls, a rate of victimization nearly 4 times higher than among men and boys.
• In 2018, 12% of women reported that they had experienced at least one form of intimate partner violence in the year preceding the survey—that's almost 5,000 women per day.
• Children exposed to intimate partner violence are at increased risk of a wide range of psychological and behavioural problems including low self-esteem, depression and anxiety as well as increased risks of aggression, delinquency, violence, and risk-taking behaviours.
• In December 2022, WAGE launched "It's Not Just", a national campaign to raise youth awareness about gender-based violence. "It's Not Just" aims to increase awareness of gender-based violence, build knowledge, and ultimately shift beliefs and actions to disrupt the cycle of violence too many people in Canada experience daily.

The Standing Committee on the Status of Women (FEWO)

• From February to April 2022, FEWO conducted a study on "Intimate Partner and Domestic Violence in Canada".
• In their June 17, 2022, report entitled: Towards a Violence-Free Canada: Addressing and Eliminating Intimate Partner and Family Violence, the Committee made 28 recommendations to provide guidance to the Government on measures that could be implemented by all orders of government to prevent intimate partner and family violence in Canada and to ensure that the needs of survivors from diverse backgrounds are met.
• The recommendations highlight the need for prevention, further support for survivors and victims, research and data collection, and changes to the justice system in Canada.
• The Government's Response to this report was tabled in October 2022. The Government is committed to continue listening and responding with compassion to victims and survivors, and to end gender-based violence and promote gender equality.

Mass Casualty Commission's Final Report: Turning the Tide Together

Issue/question:

How will WAGE support the implementation of the Mass Casualty Commission's (MCC) recommendations?

Suggested response:

• In April 2020, the brutal and senseless attacks that occurred forever changed the lives of countless people in Nova Scotia and throughout Canada in the worst mass shooting in Canada's history.
• The Mass Casualty Commission's final report points to the need to address the root causes of gender-based violence - which are deeply ingrained in our society.
• The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence is a concrete step in fulfilling a long-standing commitment of Federal, Provincial and Territorial governments to work together towards a Canada free of gender-based violence.
• Building on the Budget 2021 investment of $601.3M over 5 years to advance toward a National Action Plan, Budget 2022 provided $539.3M over 5 years to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. Negotiations are underway to establish bilateral funding agreements with the provinces and territories.
• I will continue to work with my colleague, the Minister of Public Safety, other federal Ministers, as well as my provincial and territorial counterparts to end gender-based violence.
• I have encouraged my provincial and territorial counterparts responsible for the Status of Women to consider MCC recommendations in the development of their Gender-Based Violence implementation plans.
  

Key information:

Investments

• Under the Federal Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Strategy, launched in 2017, the Government of Canada committed more than $800 million over 9 years and over $44 million ongoing to advance efforts to prevent gender-based violence, support victims and survivors and their families, and promote responsive legal and justice systems.
• In November 2022, Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers responsible for the Status of Women launched the 10-year National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (GBV NAP). Budget 2022 committed $539.3 million to support the provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the GBV NAP.

Background:

Mass Casualty Commission's Final Report

• In April 2020, 22 persons lost their lives in Nova Scotia as the result of the worst mass shooting in Canada's history.
• In October 2020, the Government of Canada and the Province of Nova Scotia established the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) – an independent Joint Public Inquiry into the Nova Scotia April 2023 tragedy.
• On March 30, 2023, the MCC released their final report, Turning the Tide Together. The MCC report represents the conclusion of the Commission's mandate and signifies the passing of the work from the hands of the Commission to the Governments of Canada and Nova Scotia.
• The report offers insights into the circumstances leading to the tragedy, and provides a number of recommendations, findings and lessons learned, including the roles of both gender-based violence and intimate partner violence in the tragedy.
• The report underscores the need for collaboration between federal-provincial-territorial governments, including in the area of gender-based violence.
• The report finds that gender-based violence is an epidemic and a public health emergency that requires a meaningful, whole-of-society response. The Commission makes specific reference to the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (GBV NAP), noting that the Plan recognizes that the "disproportionate and increased risk of violence against women results from and reinforces systemic discrimination. These risks can intersect and multiply where more than one factor contributes to marginalization".
• Public Safety Canada is the lead coordinating federal department on the implementation of the report's recommendations. WAGE is working with Public Safety Canada to address the report's recommendations, findings and lessons learned through a whole-of-government approach.
• In April 2023, Minister Ien was in contact with her provincial and territorial counterparts responsible for the Status of Women to encourage the consideration of MCC recommendations in the development of their GBV NAP implementation plans.

How WAGE Supports the RCMP

• Federal efforts to end gender-based violence in Canada started in 2017, with the launch of the federal GBV Strategy. Since Budget 2017, 7 departments and agencies have received funding for specific initiatives under the federal GBV Strategy, including Public Safety Canada and the RCMP.
• Through the federal GBV Strategy, WAGE has supported the RCMP to develop trauma and violence-informed, culturally sensitive training for RCMP employees and officers. For example, in early 2020, WAGE provided advisory support as the RCMP developed and launched a course on cultural awareness and humility.
• WAGE also supported the RCMP's Sexual Assault Review Team to develop and launch courses for all RCMP employees and officers on reinforcing the use of a trauma-informed approach; victims' and survivors' rights; consent law; and the devastating effects of myths pertaining to sexual assaults.
• At the Ministerial level, the RCMP requested input and advice from the Minister for Women and Gender Equality Canada's Advisory Council on Gender-Based Violence in 2017. The RCMP asked for guidance on their sexual assault investigative review and recommendations. Members of the Minister's Advisory Council also provided advice to the RCMP on trauma-informed practices and strengthening police training in cases of sexual assault.

Gender-related homicides

Issue/question:

What is WAGE doing to address gender-related homicides in Canada?

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada remains committed to preventing and addressing all forms of gender-based violence, including gender-related homicide. This is sometimes referred to as femicide.
• Funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada and shared with my provincial and territorial colleagues, a recent study by Statistics Canada found that between 2011 and 2021, 66% of gender-related homicides were perpetrated by intimate partners and 28% by family members.
• 21% of victims were Indigenous, despite comprising only 5% of all women and girls in Canada.
• The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, supported by an investment of $539.3M, serves as the Federal-Provincial-Territorial framework for a Canada free of gender-based violence.
• We are working closely with federal partners, provinces, territories, Indigenous partners, and stakeholders to address all forms of gender-based violence.

Key information:

Investment

• In 2022, WAGE provided approximately $575,000 to 2 organizations for femicide prevention.

Results

• In 2022, 2 organizations were funded for femicide prevention work.

Project examples

• New Brunswick Women's Equality Branch is working with the Atlantic Domestic Homicide Network, and the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability to examine domestic homicide data and trends in the Atlantic provinces over a 10-year retrospective period.
• Alliance des Maisons d'Hébergement de Deuxième Étape pour femmes et enfants victimes de violence conjugale's Canadian Hub on Post-separation Domestic Violence and the Implementation of Second-Stage Housing Across the Country project will, among other things, encourage the development of partnerships with organizations, institutions, and research groups to prevent domestic homicide.

National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence

• Building on the Budget 2021 investment of $601.3M over 5 years to advance toward a National Action Plan, Budget 2022 provided $539.3M over 5 years, starting in 2022-23, to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.
• Federal funding will flow through bilateral agreements with each province and territory. Negotiations are currently underway.

Background:

• Canada's Criminal Code provides a broad response to all forms of violence against all persons in Canada, including women and girls. Criminal Code sentencing provisions allow the Courts to impose sentences on offenders of violence against women and girls that are proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the offender, taking into account aggravating factors (e.g. prejudice or hate based on sex and/or gender identity or expression, evidence that the offender abused their intimate partner or a member of the victim's or the offender's family).
• Since 2015, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (SRVAW) has been calling on all countries to establish femicide observatories to increase education and awareness, and to inform violence prevention.
  • In December 2017, the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) was launched to document the killings of women and girls across Canada.
  • The SRVAW came to Canada in 2018, and Minister Ien met with the SRVAW at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2022.
• Budget 2021 allocated $11M to Women and Gender Equality Canada for gender-based violence research and knowledge mobilization. Over $1M is being used to fund a femicide information data base system, in partnership with Statistics Canada. This research will allow for valid measurement and reporting on gender-related homicides in Canada.
  • As a result of this funding, Statistics Canada released the first in a series of 5 articles expected over a 3-year period in April 2023.
  • The study found that between 2011 and 2021, Canadian police reported 1,125 gender-related homicides of women and girls in Canada. In 2021, the rate of gender-related homicide of Indigenous women and girls was more than triple that of gender-related homicides of women and girls overall.
  • The remaining four articles will focus on:
    • Report 2 - Recent trends in police-reported sexual assault (Late 2023).
    • Report 3 - Recent developments in clearance rates of violent crime, including sexual assault (2023-24).
    • Reports 4 and 5 - Prior and repeat contact with the police, Social Data Linkage Environment analysis, and treatment of gender-based homicides and attempted gender-based homicides in the courts (2024-25/2025-26).
• The March 2023 Mass Casualty Commission report acknowledged that those who perpetrate mass casualties often have unaddressed histories of gender-based, intimate partner, or family violence, and that tackling those forms of violence must be an urgent priority.
• In April 2023, Minister Ien wrote to provincial and territorial Ministers responsible for the Status of Women concerning the implementation of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. In this letter, she noted the need for collective action on gender-based violence is further reiterated by the Mass Casualty Commission report and Statistics Canada study on gender-related homicide.

Human Trafficking

Issue/question:

How is the Government of Canada working to protect those who are at risk of human trafficking?

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada is committed to preventing and addressing all forms of gender-based violence, including human trafficking.
• The National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking, led by Public Safety Canada, is a whole-of-government approach that brings together federal efforts under one strategic framework and is supported by an investment of $57.22M over 5 years and $10.28M ongoing.
• As part of the Strategy, the Government of Canada is supporting 63 organizations to implement projects designed to prevent and address human trafficking and support at-risk populations, victims, and survivors.
  • As part of these efforts, Women and Gender Equality Canada has funded 42 projects, for a total of nearly $14M.
• In addition, Women and Gender Equality Canada is enhancing its Gender-Based Violence Program, including increased funding for initiatives to stop human trafficking and support for at-risk populations. A Call for Proposals was launched in December 2022, and closed on February 8, 2023. Proposals are in assessment.

Key information:

Investment

• Through the Public Safety Canada-led National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking, WAGE received $10M ($7.6M in Grants and contributions) over 5 years, and $2M ($1.4M in Grants and contributions) per year ongoing for the Human Trafficking Initiative. The initiative provides funding to support organizations in developing and implementing promising prevention or intervention practices that will advance knowledge and enhance empowerment supports for at-risk populations and survivors of human trafficking.
• Of this investment, WAGE has funded 42 projects, for a total of nearly $14M (with additional funds leveraged from existing program funding). All projects address human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and 2 also look at labour trafficking.
• Budget 2021 included $105M over 5 years for WAGE to enhance its Gender-Based Violence Program.
• As part of this funding, WAGE launched a Call for Proposals (CFP) to address GBV through promising practices and community-based research in December 2022. This included a priority to prevent human trafficking for at-risk and underserved populations or enhance supports for victims and survivors of human trafficking. The call closed in February 2023.
• Public Safety Canada is also providing $8.4M over 4 years to support projects designed to prevent and address human trafficking.
• Public Safety Canada provides ongoing funding to the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking to administer the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline. The Hotline is a national, multilingual (200 languages, including 27 Indigenous languages), 24/7/365 service and offers referrals to supports and services to victims and survivors.

Results

• Projects supported through the Human Trafficking Initiative are still ongoing so it is too early to report on results. However, 45% of the funded projects serve Indigenous Peoples and 38% serve youth; roughly 62% of projects have indicated they serve survivors of human trafficking.

Project examples

• Examples of projects funded by WAGE include:
  • The Women's Centre for Social Justice is receiving up to $552,500 for a 37-month project to develop and implement promising intervention practices to advance knowledge and enhance empowerment supports for at-risk populations and survivors of human trafficking in Ontario, Alberta, Yukon, British Columbia and Québec.
  • Sudbury Women's Centre will receive up to $399,088 for a 37-month project that will develop and implement promising practices through the establishment of the Saving Our Sisters (SOS) Alliance Human Trafficking Intervention Initiative to advance knowledge and enhance empowerment supports for underserved at-risk population and survivors of human trafficking in Northern Ontario.
  • The CALACS Maison ISA will receive up to $371,880 for a 33-month project that will develop and implement specialized, innovative and territory-specific intervention practices that will advance knowledge and improve support to empower women victims of human trafficking for sexual exploitation in Quebec.
  • Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia will receive up to $315,768 for a 37-month project that will develop and implement Indigenous-led, community-based, culturally-rooted anti-human trafficking approaches, practices and materials to advance knowledge and enhance empowerment supports for at-risk Indigenous populations and survivors of human trafficking throughout British Columbia.
  • Covenant House Toronto is nearing completion of a 3-year research project with a value of $273,913, aimed at assessing the effectiveness of its Urban Response Model to assist survivors of trafficking, which offers an integrated spectrum of supports and housing. The project will identify promising practices and gaps in the Model, and highlight how to improve services to survivors.

Background:

• WAGE disproportionately impacts women and girls, including Indigenous women and girls, migrants and new immigrants, 2SLGBTQI+ people, as well as their families and communities.
  • From 2011 to 2021, women and girls represented 96% of detected victims of human trafficking.
• In 2021, there were 552 incidents of human trafficking reported by police, involving 382 victims.
• In September 2019, the National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking was launched by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. The National Strategy includes a number of new and expanded initiatives by Public Safety; the Canadian Border Service Agency; WAGE; Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; Public Services and Procurement Canada; and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. It aims to:
  • Empower victims and survivors to regain self-confidence and control over their lives;
  • Prevent more of these crimes from taking place;
  • Better protect those who are most at-risk of being trafficked;
  • Prosecute human traffickers for their heinous crimes; and
  • Embrace partnerships with provinces and territories and other organizations to maximize impact.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, And Two-Spirit LGBTQQIA+ Peoples

Issue/question:

What action is WAGE taking to address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirit (2S) LGBTQQIA+ people?

Suggested response:

• It has been a priority of my Department to work with Indigenous peoples to address the ongoing national tragedy of gender-based violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ people. This is also an important topic I discuss along with Indigenous leaders at the federal, provincial, territorial level.
• The 2021 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People National Action Plan and the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence are aligned and mutually reinforcing:
  • They aim to prevent gender-based violence; address its root causes; and provide better support for victims, survivors, and their families, no matter where they live.
• Budget 2021 provided WAGE with $55 million over 5 years to bolster the capacity of Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ organizations to provide gender-based violence prevention programming aimed at addressing the root causes of violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.
• A Call for Proposals was launched in early 2022, and projects are currently being implemented across the country.

Key information:

Investment

• Since 2015, the Department has funded over 360 projects, providing approximately $152.8M to projects supporting Indigenous and Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexually and gender diverse people (2SLGBTQQIA+) communities representing 31% of all WAGE investments (data excludes COVID funding).
• WAGE further increased its work to support Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people following the Calls for Justice in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In 2019, WAGE provided $13M to more than 100 commemoration projects to help honour the lives and legacies of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.
• Budget 2021 provided $55M to WAGE over 5 years to bolster the capacity of Indigenous women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ organizations to provide gender-based violence prevention programming aimed at addressing the root causes of violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people.

Results

• A Call for Proposals to implement the Budget 2021 investment of $55M closed in March 2022. Successful projects in BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories have been announced, with more to come. This investment is a key deliverable under the Federal Pathway to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People as well as the first investment under the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.

Project examples

The following are examples of WAGE funded projects that are intended to address the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQI+ people:

• Native Women's Association of Canada: Developing Evidence-Based Training to Service Providers, Supporting LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit Indigenous Survivors of Gender-based Violence ($1M ended March 31, 2022)
  • The project developed and tested training for service providers supporting LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit survivors of gender-based violence.
  • Training was delivered to over 50 service providers who indicated, through surveys, that they have "increased knowledge of Indigenous healing and resilience practices, and are better able to provide culturally safe and trauma-informed care and services to Indigenous 2SLGBTQI+ folks with lived experience of GBV" and "a better understanding of concepts such as cultural safety, decolonization and Two Spirit has resulted in an increased ability to provide safe spaces".
• Liard Aboriginal Women's Society (LAWS): Following Our People's Way: Building a Circle of Dignity and Justice/ Gūdené' K'éh Gūs'ānī: Dene 'Ā́ Nezen Gedı̄́' Gūtīe Sū'ą̄ī dege ($1M ends June 19, 2024)
  • This 60-month project will develop, implement and test a community-based and culturally-relevant advocacy model based on response-based practice to support, respond and restore dignity and safety of Indigenous GBV survivors in northern and remote Kaska communities in Yukon and Northern British Columbia.
  • The organization will engage GBV survivor advocates to raise awareness on related issues in their communities and offer peer support and referrals to other GBV survivors in order to improve their access to appropriate response and support services.
• Eagle Vision Inc.: Taken: The Podcast Series ($459,403, ended June 30, 2020)
  • This project developed the podcast "TAKEN", a 10-part series which shares the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The Eagle Vision team worked with families, law enforcement, advocates, academics, elders and knowledge keepers across the country to create a platform that helps shed light on these stories, with the hope that it will bring forward new clues to help solve cases and raise awareness of the issues. The podcasts reached over 609,000 Canadians, who listened to the podcasts over 1.4 million times. The podcast, available in both Cree and English, has over 10 thousand subscribers.

Human trafficking-related projects:

• Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC): Kewabadjmin: SEEing Ourselves ($400K ends March 31, 2024)
  • This 36-month project will develop, implement and test an intensive healing and empowering program intervention for Indigenous women and gender diverse people who identify as 2SLGBTQQIA+ and who are survivors of or at risk of sexual exploitation through human trafficking.
  • The project will increase knowledge about identifying and addressing past and ongoing traumas, current risk factors of being trafficked, and barriers to self-sufficiency. This will be achieved by engaging survivors, Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Holders with experience in traditional healing and trauma to participate in a Living Experience Advisory Circle, developing and implementing a trauma healing program based on therapy and traditional healing, and identifying and addressing current risk factors for sexual exploitation through human trafficking.
• Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia: An Indigenous-Led Response to End Human Trafficking in British Columbia ($315,768, ends March 31, 2024)
  • This 37-month project with the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of British Columbia will develop and implement Indigenous-led, community-based, culturally-rooted anti-human trafficking approaches, practices and materials to advance knowledge and enhance empowerment supports for at-risk Indigenous populations and survivors of human trafficking throughout British Columbia.
  • This will be achieved by establishing an Indigenous lived-experience youth panel, identifying high risk communities, engaging communities, organizing consultations and trainings, as well as developing materials to be used by anti-human trafficking service providers in Indigenous communities.

Background:

• While representing about 5% of all women and girls in Canada, Indigenous women and girls accounted for 23% of all female victims of homicide in 2021. In other words, the homicide rates for Indigenous women and girls are 5 time higher than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
• In June 2021, the 2021 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People (MMIWG2S+) National Action Plan and the Federal Pathway to Address Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People (Federal Pathway) were released.
  
• These plans were developed in close partnership with families and survivors, Indigenous partners, civil society, frontline service providers, municipalities, the private sector, and researchers. The experiences and knowledge shared by Indigenous leaders, partners, and communities through that process have also informed WAGE's work on the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.
• The Federal Pathway addresses 4 interconnected thematic areas: culture, health and wellness, human safety and security, and justice and is the Government of Canada's commitment through the MMIWG2S+ National Action Plan.
• WAGE and Public Safety are co-leads for the human safety and security theme of the Federal Pathway. Under this theme, WAGE is leading an initiative aimed at bolstering the capacity of Indigenous women's and 2SLGBTQQIA+ organizations to provide GBV prevention programming ($55 million over 5 years).
• Both the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence and the 2021 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People National Action Plan will require coordinated and collaborative actions from several jurisdictions.

2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan

Issue/question:

How is the Government advancing equality for 2SLGBTQI+ communities through the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan?

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada is committed to protecting the rights of Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and additional sexuality and gender-diverse people.
• The Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan will guide our work to fight discrimination, address issues of concern to 2SLGBTQI+ communities, break down barriers, and advance rights. We are committed to reporting on progress in implementation.
• Budget 2022 committed $100 million over 5 years to support the Plan's implementation. Up to 75% will directly go to community organizations:
  • Up to $40M in new capacity-building support, prioritizing funding for 2SLGBTQI+ communities experiencing additional marginalization; and
  • Up to $35M in new project-focused support aimed at addressing specific barriers to 2SLGBTQI+ equality
• The Action Plan also includes funding for an awareness campaign to enhance inclusion and break down stigma against 2SLGBTQI+ communities, and for, data collection and research to inform future 2SLGBTQI+ initiatives.

Key information:

Investment

Budget 2022 committed $100M over 5 years to implement the Action Plan:

• Up to $75M for 2SLGBTQI+ community organizations that advocate for and serve their communities:
  • Up to $40M in new capacity-building support, prioritizing funding for 2SLGBTQI+ communities experiencing additional marginalization; and,
  • Up to $35M in new project-focused support aimed at addressing specific barriers to 2SLGBTQI+ equality.
• Up to $7.7M for new community-led research, and new data collection and research to inform future 2SLGBTQI+ initiatives;
• Up to $5.6M to develop and implement awareness to break down stigma and end discrimination for 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians; and
• Up to $11.7M to stabilize and expand the 2SLGBTQI+ Secretariat

Results

On February 27, 2023, the Government released a 6-month progress report on the Action Plan's implementation. Key accomplishments include, but are not limited to:

• Launching consultations to review the criminal law regarding HIV non-disclosure (Justice Canada);
• Appointing a dedicated Two-Spirit senior advisor to provide advice on unique issues facing Indigenous 2SLGBTQI+ communities (WAGE);
• Completing Canada Pride Citation ceremonies for RCMP claimants under the LGBT Purge Class Action Settlement Agreement (RCMP).
• Launching public opinion research; the first phase of work in the 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan's awareness campaign (WAGE); and,
• Upcoming research implementation plan in approvals for the $7.7M to strengthen 2SLGBTQI+ data and evidence-based policy making (WAGE).

Since then, the Government has made additional advancements in implementing the 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan. These include:

• Launching the $25.5M Call for Proposals for the 2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund (WAGE). The call for proposals was launched on March 13 and closes on May 9, 2023;
• Expanding the grounds for expungement to include additional historically unjust 2SLGBTQI+ offences, such as bawdy house offences and other indecency-based offences, to the schedule of Bill C-66, the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act in March 2023 (Public Safety); and,
• Undertaking Canada Pride Citation ceremonies for Federal Public Service claimants under the LGBT Purge Class Action Settlement Agreement (WAGE).

Background:

• On August 28, 2022, the Prime Minister launched Canada's first-ever Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan…Building our future, with pride.
• The 5-year Action Plan seeks to advance rights and equality for 2SLGBTQI+ people in Canada. It also seeks to address and prevent discrimination and stigma based on sexual orientation, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression from emerging or worsening for future 2SLGBTQI+ generations.
• It will do so by prioritizing community action and by coordinating the Government's work to advance 2SLGBTQI+ issues across federal departments and agencies using a holistic approach that recognizes the interconnectedness of the types of inequities facing communities.
• The Action Plan will focus on the following priority areas:
  • Prioritize and sustain 2SLGBTQI+ community action
  • Continue to advance and strengthen 2SLGBTQI+ rights at home and abroad
  • Support Indigenous 2SLGBTQI+ resilience and resurgence
  • Engage everyone in Canada in fostering a 2SLGBTQI+ inclusive future
  • Strengthen 2SLGBTQI+ data and evidence-based policymaking
  • Embed 2SLGBTQI+ issues in the work of the Government of Canada
• The Action Plan is an evergreen document that builds on progress the Government of Canada has already made and will continue to guide the Government of Canada's work into the future.

Next Steps on the 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan

• Continuing to convene quarterly meetings with the 2SLGBTQI+ Community-Government of Canada Partnership Committee, which informs the Action Plan's implementation and future actions;
• Implementing 2 senior-level interdepartmental governance tables to foreground 2SLGBTQI+ policy issues within the Government: one on issues facing 2SLGBTQI+ communities, another targeting the unique issues impacting Indigenous 2SLGBTQI+ communities; and,
• Continuing to implement WAGE-led initiatives and report on progress of initiatives led by other departments.

Development of the 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan

• The Action Plan was developed based on the experiences, evidence and voices of 2SLGBTQI+ communities and stakeholders, through an extensive engagement process. The Government of Canada received input from 25,636 survey respondents, 102 written submissions, and over 100 participants across 7 roundtable discussions, who shared their lived experiences, knowledge and expertise.
• The Action Plan was also developed using an intersectional lens that recognizes the interconnectedness of inequities facing communities, and that these outcomes are further worsened due to intersecting forms of discrimination on the basis of race, Indigeneity, religion, disability, official language, age, citizenship status and socioeconomic status.

2SLGBTQI+ Equality

Issue/question:

Beyond the 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, how has the Government advanced equality for 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Canada?

Suggested response:

• Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression continues to be a reality in Canada. Such discrimination is against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and it must be eliminated.
• The Government of Canada is committed to addressing the persisting disparities faced by 2SLGBTQI+ communities and to building a safer, more inclusive country. Since 2015, across government, we have:
  • Established a dedicated 2SLGBTQI+ Secretariat (2016);
  • Amended the Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression (2017);
  • Established Canada's first-ever funding dedicated to strengthening 2SLGBTQI+ organizations (2019);
  • Banned 'conversion therapy' (2022);
  • Approved Canada Blood Services' and Hema Quebec's submissions to end the blood donor deferral period for men who have sex with men (2022);
  • Launched Canada's first Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan (2022); and, expanded the grounds for expungement of past criminal convictions under Bill C-66 to include Bawdy House infractions (2023).
• We are proud of the work we have done, and guided by the Action Plan, will continue to report back to Canadians as we do all we can to break down barriers, end stigma and discrimination, and advance equality for 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Canada.

Key information:

Investments

WAGE Investments and Results

• Since 2015, WAGE has invested $42.5M in 116 projects to amplify the 2SLGBTQI+ movement, including:
  • Up to $27.5M through the 2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund to enhance the capacity of 76 2SLGBTQI+ organizations (Budget 2019).
  • Up to $15M through the 2SLGBTQI+ Projects Fund for up to 39 projects addressing barriers to 2SLGBTQI+ equality (Budget 2021).

Funding project examples

• The Community-Based Research Centre received $617,184 over 27 months from the 2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund to strengthen its capacity to advance 2SLGBTQI+ issues through the development of a community-based research training for 2SLGBTQI+ organizations, an internal knowledge translation and exchange strategy, and governance enhancements.
• Rainbow Faith and Freedom is receiving $400,000 over 24 months from the 2SLGBTQI+ Projects Fund to work with 2SLGBTQI+ communities and faith institutions to end religious-based discrimination in the faith sector in Ontario, through a survey to evaluate inclusion, an awareness campaign, and educational programming to help religious organizations effect change.

Background:

Despite substantial gains towards improved equality in Canada, 2SLGBTQI+ individuals continue to experience stigma and discrimination, which are at the root of multiple inequities in areas such as health, safety, housing and employment.

• Health: 2SLGBTQI+ communities face intersecting challenges related to their physical and mental health and well-being, including: higher rates of poor mental health, suicidal ideation and attempts, sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, and chronic disease, among others.
• Safety: 2SLGBTQI+ individuals are more likely to experience violence in their lifetimes than their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts and are less likely to report incidences to the police. Over the last several years, incidents of hate and violence specifically targeting 2SLGBTQI+ communities have also risen, with the number of police-reported hate crimes targeting sexual orientation increasing by 64% between 2020 and 2021.
• Housing: 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians are more likely than non-2SLGBTQI+ Canadians to experience some type of homelessness or housing insecurity. Some studies suggest that between 25-40% of homeless youth identify as 2SLGBTQI+.
• Employment: 2SLGBTQI+ individuals face discrimination, harassment and exclusion in work and employment settings, including in hiring processes and workplaces, with Two-Spirit, trans and gender-diverse individuals facing greater harassment.

Government Response

The Government is committed to correct historic wrongs, break down barriers, and end stigma and discrimination to advance equality for 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Canada. This commitment includes:

Health:

• Approving Canada Blood Services' and Hema Quebec's applications to adopt a sexual behaviour-based screening questionnaire, ending the deferral period for men who have sex with men (2022).
• Funding 3 projects that focus on trans communities (Health Canada (HC)):
  • 2 projects ($5.2M) led by Trans Care BC, which will develop gender-affirming sexual and reproductive healthcare resources for healthcare providers and under-served Two-Spirit, trans and non-binary Canadians, and address misinformation and disinformation regarding care for trans children and youth.
  • 1 project ($15K) led by Hamilton Trans Health Coalition, which will engage Canadian gender-affirming healthcare providers on the scope of harassment, intimidation and threats they experience, and highlight strategies to address them.
• Proposing, through Budget 2023, $36M over 3 years starting in 2024-25, to renew the Sexual and Reproductive Health Fund (HC). This fund supports community-based organizations that improve accessibility to abortion, and sexual and reproductive health care, for vulnerable populations, including 2SLGBTQI+ communities.

Safety and Justice:

• Expanding the grounds for expungement to include additional historically unjust 2SLGBTQI+ offences, such as bawdy house offences and other indecency-based offences, to the schedule of Bill C-66, the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act (2023).
• Criminalizing 'conversion therapy' (2022).
• Launching the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence, a framework for a Canada free of gender-based violence, including violence against 2SLGBTQI+ people (2022).
• Proposing, through Budget 2023, 2 specific initiatives to address 2SLGBTQI+ hate and violence:
  • Ensuring the Action Plan to Combat Hate to address, including hate faced by 2SLGBTQI+ communities (Canadian Heritage (PCH)).
  • Providing $49.5M over 5 years, starting in 2023-24, to enhance the Communities at Risk: Security Infrastructure Program to be more responsive to the evolving security needs of communities, including 2SLGBTQI+ communities (Public Safety (PS)).

Housing:

• Launching the National Housing Strategy, which supports Canada's most vulnerable populations, including 2SLGBTQI+ people (Canadian Mortgage Housing Canada (CMHC)).
• Implementing Reaching Home: Canada's Homelessness Strategy, which delivers programs to meet the needs of vulnerable populations, including 2SLGBTQI+ communities (Employment Social Development Canada (ESDC)).

Employment:

• Reviewing the Federal Employment Equity Act to look at opportunities to redefine equity groups, including 2SLGBTQI+ people (ESDC) within federally regulated industries.
• Piloting the Women's Employment Readiness (WER) Program, with 2SLGBTQI+ women being one of WER's four target groups (ESDC)
• Launching the Federal Tourism Growth Strategy, supporting the growth of 2SLGBTQI+ tourism (Innovation Science Economic Development (ISED)).

The LGBT Purge

Issue/question:

The LGBT Purge Class, and the implementation of the LGBT Purge Class Action Settlement Agreement

Suggested response:

• Between the 1950s and mid-1990s, LGBT members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the federal public service were discriminated against and often fired, in what came to be known as the "LGBT Purge".
• In 2016, survivors of the LGBT Purge launched a nation-wide class action lawsuit against the Government of Canada. In 2018, a historic settlement was reached to compensate survivors, and fund reconciliation and memorialization measures.
• In 2022, the Government of Canada launched the first federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan. One of its main priorities is to strengthen 2SLGBTQI+ inclusion in federal workplaces so that nothing akin to the LGBT Purge happens again.

Background:

• Between the 1950s and mid-1990s, 2SLGBTQI+ Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and RCMP members, as well as 2SLGBTQI+ federal public servants, were subjected to systemic discrimination and harassment in what is now referred to as the LGBT Purge. Many were interrogated, followed, abused, and fired in accordance with policy and sanctioned practice.
• In 2016, survivors of the LGBT Purge launched a national class action lawsuit against the Canadian government. In 2017, the Prime Minister issued an apology to the survivors of the LGBT Purge and 2SLGBTQI+ communities.
• In June 2018, the Federal Court approved the LGBT Purge Class Action Final Settlement Agreement, which seeks to resolve the class action in a fair and compassionate manner through funding for recognition and memorialization exhibits, compensation for class members who were impacted by the LGBT Purge, and the presentation of a Canada Pride Citation certificate and insignia by the Federal Public Service, RCMP or CAF.
• The Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan seeks to strengthen 2SLGBTQI+ inclusion in federal workplaces to ensure that nothing akin to the LGBT Purge happens again.

Investment

• The parties signed an Agreement-in-Principle in November 2017, and the Final Settlement Agreement was approved by the Federal Court on June 22, 2018. The settlement provides up to $145M:
  • $110M for individual compensation, which provides $15M for legal fees,
  • $5M for external administration, and
  • $15M for recognition and memorialization exhibits and monuments administered by the LGBT Purge Fund.
• Up to $110M available to compensate class members — current and former federal public servants, members of the CAF and the RCMP, who were directly and negatively impacted by discriminatory policies and practices between December 1, 1955 and June 20, 1996.
• Class members eligible for individual compensation began to receive an initial payment of $5,000 in February 2019. The majority have now received their complete compensation in addition to copies of their service records, letter of apology and the Notation to File.

Results

• Individuals submitted claims to Deloitte Canada to request compensation and/or Individual Reconciliation Measures between October 25, 2018, and April 25, 2019.
  • A total of 719 claimants submitted claims: 629 military members, 78 federal public servants and 12 RCMP members.
  • Claimants had the choice to receive their Canada Pride Citation certificate and Insignia by mail or have them presented in a ceremony with the Federal Public Service, RCMP or the CAF.
• In 2022, one ceremony took place to present a Canada Pride Citation certificate and Insignia to a singular RCMP member. In 2023, WAGE and PCO conducted 4 ceremonies to present Canada Pride Citation certificates and Insignia to federal public servants in Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal and Fredericton. The Canadian Armed Forces are beginning theirs across Canada in spring 2023.
• The Final Settlement Agreement allocated $23.7M to the LGBT Purge Fund for reconciliation and memorialization measures, including the creation of the 2SLGBTQI+ National Monument.
• In 2022, the Government of Canada, in conjunction with the LGBT Purge Fund, announced the winning design for the LGBTQ2+ National Monument to be built in downtown Ottawa.
  • The design, entitled "Thunderhead," draws on the symbolism of a thunderhead cloud; it embodies the strength, activism, and hope of the 2SLGBTQI+ community and is a lasting testimony to the courage and humanity of those who were harmed by the LGBT Purge and by homophobic and transphobic laws and norms.
  • The monument site is located on the northeast side of Wellington Street near the Portage Bridge, and it is expected to be inaugurated in 2025.

Next steps

• The CAF, RCMP and the Federal Public Service, in collaboration with the 2SLGBTQI+ Secretariat, will continue to implement remaining initiatives from the LGBT Purge Class Action Settlement Agreement.
• The Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) (Office of the Chief Human Resources Officer) will lead efforts to further 2SLGBTQI+ diversity and inclusion within the Government of Canada by ensuring TBS' Centre for Diversity and Inclusion's future initiatives are informed by 2SLGBTQI+ federal employee networks, stakeholders and by the 2021 LGBT Purge Report, "Emerging from the Purge: The State of LGBTQI2S Inclusion in the Federal Workplace and Recommendations for Improvement".
• As part of the response to this Report, the CAF and Department of National Defence are reviewing and updating training resources, increasing awareness and understanding of inclusive language, continuing to define departmental benchmarks, supporting the monitoring of activities, and working in collaboration with 2SLGBTQI+ communities to support 2SLGBTQI+ inclusion.
• The Government of Canada will continue to encourage employee-led work such as the Positive Space Initiative and Public Service Pride Network, which are key to nurturing a 2SLGBTQI+ inclusive workplace through awareness-raising and learning, and to providing peer support and community connections for 2SLGBTQI+ federal employees.

Violence against 2SLGBTQI+ communities

Issue/question:

How is the Government of Canada addressing violence and hate targeting 2SLGBTQI+ communities?

Suggested response:

• Globally 2SLGBTQI+ communities are experiencing increased threats and violence. We are not immune to this in Canada.
• The Government of Canada is clear: every single person deserves to live a true and authentic life free from discrimination and gender-based violence, regardless of who they are or how they express themselves.
• We are committed to building a safer Canada for 2SLGBTQI+ communities, through initiatives such as:
  • The Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, which commits to addressing longstanding discrimination against 2SLGBTQI+ communities (2022)
  • The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence – a framework for a Canada free of gender-based violence, including violence against 2SLGBTQI+ people
  • Canada's Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence, which advances efforts to prevent gender-based violence, support victims and survivors as well as their families, and promote responsive legal and justice systems (2017);
  • The Action Plan to Combat Hate, which will address hate faced by diverse Canadians, including 2SLGBTQI+ communities (Budget 2023)

Key information:

Investments

Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan

• In August 2022, the first Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan was launched with a budget of $100M to support its implementation. Of this, up to $75 million will be available to help 2SLGBTQI+ communities address the discrimination and inequities they face.
  • In March 2023, WAGE launched a $25.5M call for proposals for the 2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund - the second open call for this fund.
• The Action Plan also includes up to $5.6M for an awareness campaign to enhance inclusion and break down stigma and discrimination against 2SLGBTQI+ communities.
  • In March 2023, WAGE launched public opinion research to inform the development of the awareness campaign.

National Action Plan to end Gender-Based Violence

• In November 2022, the Federal, Provincial and Territorial Ministers Responsible for the Status of Women endorsed the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (GBV NAP). The GBV NAP serves as a framework for a Canada free of gender-based violence, including violence against 2SLGBTQI+ people and is supported by a Budget 2022 investment of $539.3M over 5 years.
• The GBV NAP builds on Canada's Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence, which is advancing efforts to prevent gender-based violence, support victims and survivors as well as their families, and promote responsive legal and justice systems (2017).
• 10 out of 61 projects funded through the GBV Strategy included 2SLGBTQI+ communities, for a total of $8.8M. Of those, 5 projects focused exclusively on 2SLGBTQI+ communities, for a total of $3.8M.
  • The Conseil québécois LGBT: $420,000 for a 54-month project to improve access to coordinated, sensitive and responsive services for 2SLGBTQI+ survivors of sexual violence in urban, suburban, rural and isolated areas of Quebec.
  • OUTSaskatoon: $548,637 for a 60-month project to developing and test the provision of trauma-and survivor-informed, feminist, intersectional, and anti-oppressive support services to 2SLGBTQI+ and gender non-conforming survivors of GBV.
  • The WAVAW Rape Crisis Centre: $998,129 for a 60-month project to develop and test a gender affirming inclusion process for 2SLGBTQI+ communities and gender-non-binary survivors of GBV to improve service provision.
  • The Native Women's Association of Canada: $400,000 for a 36-month project to develop, implement, and test an intensive healing and empowerment program intervention for Indigenous women and gender diverse people who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ and who are survivors of or are at risk of sexual exploitation through human trafficking.
  • The 519: $1M for a 48-month project that developed and tested a Rapid Incidence Response approach to respond more effectively to incidents of violence targeting 2SLGBTQI+ communities by mobilizing resources, improving communication and establishing a formal advocacy response to incidents of violence.

Budget 2023 Investments

• Budget 2023 announced that the federal government will create a new Action Plan to Combat Hate that also addresses hate faced by 2SLGBTQI+ communities. This new Action Plan will include measures to combat hateful rhetoric and build safer, more inclusive communities (PCH).
• Budget 2023 also proposes to provide $49.5M to expand the Communities at Risk: Security Infrastructure Program to allow it to be more responsive to the evolving security needs of communities, including 2SLGBTQI+ communities (PS).

Background:

• Safety and security are some of the most pressing concerns facing 2SLGBTQI+ communities. The 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan Survey, which informed the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, gathered input from 25,636 survey respondents. The statistics on safety are striking:
  • 39% of respondents indicated that, over the last 5 years, they had experienced violence due to homophobia, transphobia, biphobia or other forms of discrimination directed at their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. The most common forms of violence and discrimination experienced by respondents were verbal abuse (90%), online harassment (51%) and psychological violence (47%).
  • Over 50% of transgender men respondents (56%), transgender women respondents (54%), and respondents who are gender diverse, or non-binary/agender (54%) experienced violence and discrimination. These groups also experienced higher rates of physical and sexual violence than did respondents from other gender identity groups.
  • Yet, 91% of survey respondents who experienced violence based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression did not report any of these incidents to the police. This exceptionally high figure was generally true regardless of respondents' gender identity, sexual orientation, population group, Indigenous identity, ability or first official language.
• Furthermore, there is currently a disturbing rise in hate against 2SLGBTQI+ communities, particularly trans women. For example One the 2023 Hershey's International Women's Day campaign – "Her for She", was criticized online and in the media for including trans representation. The online hate it created was alarming.
• The Government of Canada is committed to addressing challenges faced by transgender people and has made it clear that all Canadians have the right to be free from discrimination and harassment based on gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, and sex characteristics.

Gender-Based Violence and Sports^{Footnote 1} 

Issue/question:

How will the Government of Canada address gender-based violence in sports?

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that everyone can experience a sport environment that is free from all forms of maltreatment, including gender-based violence.
• Sport plays an important role in building stronger, healthier communities across the country. Sport is also a powerful tool for gender equality. As Minister of Youth, I am also aware of how important sport is for young people's health and well-being, including their mental health.
• The need to prevent and address gender-based violence in sport environments is recognized in the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence that Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers responsible for the Status of Women endorsed on November 9, 2022.
• The National Action Plan is supported by a Budget 2022 investment of $539.3 million over 5 years to enable provinces and territories in their respective implementation.
• Building on safe sport investments in Budget 2019 and 2022, Budget 2023 commits $13.8 million over 3 years, starting in 2022-23, to the Department of Canadian Heritage to enhance accountability and support efforts to build a safe and accountable sport system.
• I look forward to working with my colleague, the Minister of Sport, as well as my provincial and territorial counterparts, to address maltreatment, including gender-based violence, in sport.

Background:

• Sport can be a first step to leadership for girls and gender diverse youth, helping them develop the confidence and resilience they bring to their education, careers, and communities. Through positive sport experiences, girls and gender diverse youth are more likely to reap the benefits of sport participation and grow into confident and motivated leaders.
• Canadian studies suggest that high numbers of athletes have experienced some form of neglect, physical, psychological or sexual abuse in a sports setting. Female athletes experience higher rates of maltreatment than male athletes.
• Organizations that provide opportunities for Canadians to participate and excel in sport have a responsibility to ensure that they are providing their programs and services in an environment that is free from harassment, abuse, and discrimination.
• On June 19, 2018, the former Minister of Science and Sport announced that federally funded sport organizations must:
  • Take all necessary measures to create a workplace free from harassment, abuse or discrimination of any kind;
  • Immediately disclose any incident that could compromise the project or programming to the Minister responsible for sport;
  • Make provisions for access to an independent third party to address harassment and abuse cases;
  • Adopt and/or integrate the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS) into their organizational policies and procedures; and,
  • Provide mandatory training on harassment and abuse to their members by April 1, 2020.
• Budget 2019 provided Sport Canada $30 million over 5 years, starting in 2019–20, with $6 million per year ongoing, to national-level sports organizations to further their work in these priority areas in promoting accessible, ethical, equitable and safe sports.
• In February 2019, federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers responsible for sport, physical activity, and recreation, endorsed the Red Deer Declaration for the Prevention of Harassment, Abuse and Discrimination in Sport. As part of this declaration, Ministers are developing a collaborative approach to increasing awareness and prevention, and identification, reporting, and monitoring to address harassment, abuse, and discrimination in sport. Ministers underscored their commitment to safe sport at their meeting in August 2022 and again in February 2023, where all jurisdictions committed to work toward the establishment of an independent third-party mechanism in their Province/Territory by the end of 2023.
• In June 2022, Minister St-Onge announced additional measures to make sport safer for all participants in Canada, including:
  • Responsibility, Accountability and Governance: Effective April 1, 2023, Sport Canada will make changes to contribution agreements with organizations to ensure that they meet specific governance, accountability and safe sport standards.
  • Sport Canada Athlete Advisory Committee: Sport Canada will create a committee of athletes so that it obtains advice and guidance that reflects the realities of athletes in Canada.
  • Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner: The Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner will become mandatory for federally funded organizations to provide sport participants at the national level, including athletes, with a safe and reliable channel for complaints. The Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner is an important step to challenge the culture of silence and to provide an independent channel for all participants in sport to report abuse and mistreatment and to be heard and supported. Budget 2022 proposed an investment of $16 million over 3 years to support the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner.
• The National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence aims to create a Canada free of gender-based violence. Under Pillar 2, Prevention, the National Action Plan identifies an opportunity for action to "equip professionals with training and guidance on trauma and violence-informed approaches for preventing and addressing gender-based violence in the communities they serve and in their workplaces", including sports coaches and recreational activities staff.
• The Standing Committee on the Status of Women's study on the safety of women and girls in sport ended on February 13, 2023. The report is pending. The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has also undertaken a study on the safety of sport in Canada.

Implementing Canada's Youth Policy

Issue/question: n/a

Suggested response:

• Young Canadians are not just the leaders of tomorrow, they are the leaders of today. They have innovative ideas and unique perspectives on how the government should address opportunities and challenges to build a stronger and more inclusive Canada.
• In February 2023, the Prime Minister's Youth Council welcomed its sixth cohort of engaged young people from across Canada to advise government decision makers.
• As part of Canada's Youth Policy, we published the first-ever State of Youth Report in August 2021. It includes input from youth across the country about their priorities and the challenges they are facing, and has become an important resource to guide policy and program development.
• As strong and vocal advocates for change, the contributions of Canadian youth are essential, and the Government of Canada is committed to engaging, encouraging, and empowering the voices of young people to be active members of society.

Key information:

Investment

• The Youth Secretariat's budget for 2023-24 is estimated at $1.43 million. The Secretariat does not administer any funding programs.
• Meeting youth's evolving needs:
  • The Government has made a wide range of major investments to support youth and their evolving needs:
• Budget 2023 proposed raising the interest-free Canada Student Loan limit from $210 to $300 per week of study.
• Budget 2023 also proposed to provide $197.7 million in 2024-25 to the Student Work Placement Program to continue creating quality work-integrated learning opportunities for students through partnerships between employers and post-secondary education institutions.

Results

• Canada's Youth Policy seeks to "amplify the voices of youth" and help the Government "meet their evolving needs."
• Amplifying the voices of youth in Government:
  • The Prime Minister's Youth Council is consulted regularly by the Prime Minister, members of his Cabinet; senior public servants developing youth-related policy and programming; and non-governmental organizations looking for advice or support.
  • For the first State of Youth Report, almost 1,000 youth from across Canada participated. A Youth Advisory Group wrote the main sections of the report and young artists, young public servants, and members of various government youth councils, including the Prime Minister's Youth Council, all contributed.
  • Government departments and agencies continue to set up and consult their own youth councils to help advise them. There are a dozen across government and more in development.
• The Policy also commits to publishing a State of Youth Report every four years. The first Report was published in August 2021 and the second is planned to be released in 2025.

Background:

• The Youth Secretariat supports a whole-of-government approach to youth issues and advises federal departments on Canada's Youth Policy, engaging youth, and the impacts of their programs, policies, and initiatives on young people.
• Youth can be defined as the stages between adolescence to early adulthood. No universal age range defines the youth demographic, and the federal government uses several which fall into similar ranges. Statistics Canada, for example, defines youth between 15-29 years, whereas for Employment and Social Development Canada, it is 15-30. The United Nations defines youth as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years. Members of the Prime Minister's Youth Council are aged between 16 and 24.
• The Prime Minister's Youth Council is a forum for youth to share their perspectives with the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada. Presently, the Council is composed of 26 members who hold 2-year terms. Cohort 5 includes 10 young Canadians ending their mandate in June 2023 and Cohort 6 includes 16 members who started their mandate in February 2023.
• Council members provide non-partisan advice to guide federal ministers and government officials on issues such as promoting equality and protecting rights; enhancing supports for mental health; fighting climate change; and supporting Indigenous communities.
• Since 2020, the Council has met with the Prime Minister, his Cabinet colleagues and departmental senior officials on topics such as COVID-19, mental health, vaccine uptake among youth, building-back-better post-pandemic, the 2021 and 2022 federal budgets, anti-racism, access to affordable Internet, sexual reproductive health and rights and online harm.
• State of Youth Report: The Government has moved forward in each of the 6 youth-priority areas identified in the report: Environment and Climate Action; Employment; Innovation, Skills and Learning; Leadership and Impact; Health and Wellness; and Truth and Reconciliation.
• The Report has been shared with 40 federal departments and agencies to inform the development and delivery of youth-related priorities and programming.

Student Work Placement Program

Issue/question:

How is the government supporting post-secondary students?

Suggested response:

• Employers across all sectors are raising concerns about labour and skills gaps impeding their growth.
• Youth and students are the main source for replenishing the labour force. Many face challenges to gain access to opportunities that prepare them for the world of work, including those from under-represented groups, such as youth with disabilities, Indigenous youth, Black youth and other racialized youth groups.
• For example, in March 2023, the unemployment rate for Black youth was 5% higher than the overall youth unemployment rate.
• Canada's future prosperity lies in ensuring that young Canadians graduate with the work-ready skills necessary to succeed.
• Budget 2023 committed $197.7 million in 2024-2025 to continue support for the Student Work Placement Program to create quality work-integrated learning opportunities.
• The Government remains committed to supporting post-secondary students. In 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, the Program will support the creation of up to 40,000 work-integrated learning opportunities across various sectors, contributing to a sustainable Canadian economy.

Key information:

Investment

• Budget 2023 provides $197.7 million in 2024-25 to the Student Work Placement (SWP) Program to continue creating quality work-integrated learning opportunities for students through partnerships between employers and post-secondary education institutions.
• These measures will help students can gain the necessary skills, education, and real-life work experience to transition successfully into the workforce.

Results

• Launched in 2017-2018 as a small-scale pilot, the SWP Program has grown from offering 10,000 work integrated learning (WIL) opportunities over 4 years, to its recent high of 50,000 in 2021-2022.
• To date, the Program has consistently exceeded targets to support the creation of over 100,000 opportunities for post-secondary students across Canada.

Background:

• The SWP Program supports partnerships between industry and post-secondary institutions to create quality work placements for students in all disciplines.
• The SWP Program helps post-secondary students to develop work-ready skills, employers to recruit and develop talent, and post-secondary institutions to adapt to changing labour market needs.
• For thousands of Canadian college, university, polytechnic, and CEGEP work integrated learning programs help to bring together academic learning and applied work experience. These work placements can include co-ops, internships or mentorship programs as well as other non-traditional experiences like hackathons, boot camps, and micro-internships.
• The Program incentivizes employers through an enhanced wage subsidy to offer placements to students who have historically lacked access or experience barriers to participating in WIL opportunities. Under the SWP Program, under-represented groups refer to women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, newcomers and visible minorities.
• Under-represented groups may face intersecting barriers when in the work force and the post-secondary education system. A study of WIL applications in Ontario found a lack of applicants from diverse groups. Only a third of WIL applicants identified as racialized (32.2%), a quarter (25.1%) identified as women, 9.3% of applicants identified as newcomers to Canada, 4.3% identified having a disability, and a very small minority, 0.2% of WIL applicants, identified as Indigenous (Toronto Metropolitan University, 2021).

Employment and Skills Support for Canada's Youth

Issue/question:

How the Government of Canada is supporting youth to gain the skills and experience they need to successfully enter the labour market.

Suggested response:

• Youth faced the greatest job loss during the pandemic. In response, the Government made historic investments to Canada's Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, including Canada Summer Jobs, to help youth, especially those facing barriers, to find and maintain good jobs.
• Now that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, fortunately youth unemployment rates have improved.
• However, many youth continue to need support. In particular, those from under-represented groups, such as youth with disabilities, Indigenous youth, Black youth and other racialized youth groups. For example, in March 2023, the unemployment rate for Black youth was 5% higher than the overall youth unemployment rate.
• To help ensure young Canadians have access to opportunities to develop the skills they need to succeed in today's workforce, build their careers and contribute to Canada's economy now and into the future, the 2022 Fall Economic Statement provided:
  • $301.4 million over 2 years, starting in 2023-24, for the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program to support approximately 20,000 youth per year; and
  • $400.5 million over 2 years, starting in 2023-24 for Canada Summer Jobs to support 70,000 youth jobs per year.
• These investments re-align supports for youth employment and skills programming to pre-pandemic levels. Even though the Canadian economy has made a strong recovery in many ways, our programs continue to help youth facing barriers with the opportunities they need to find good jobs.

Key information:

• The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) is made of 2 types of programs:
  • The Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program (YESSP), delivered by 12 federal partners, which provides tailored supports including skills development and training, mentorship, and wrap-around services (e.g., dependent care support, mental health counselling), in addition to wage subsidies; and,
  • Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ), delivered by ESDC, which provides wage subsidies to local employers to create quality summer employment opportunities (April to September) for young Canadians.
• The YESS supports mandate commitments to continue scaling up skills and employment programming and initiatives for Canadian youth, with a focus on reaching those facing barriers, including youth with disabilities.
• To advance the mandate commitment to create a stream for youth with disabilities under the YESS, stakeholder engagements were held in fall 2022 with Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth Canada (WAGE) and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of WAGE.
• Youth faced the greatest job loss during the pandemic. In response, the Government made historic investments to Canada's Youth Employment and Skills Strategy to help youth, especially those facing barriers, to find and maintain good jobs. The overall unemployment rate for youth aged 15-24 peaked at 30% in May 2020.
• Since then, the Canadian economy is doing well in many ways. In 2023 Q1, employment in Canada continued to expand, pushing the unemployment rate to a new historical low of 5.0%. The youth unemployment rate has also fallen below the pre-pandemic average of 10.8% to 9.8% (covering March 2022 to February 2023).
• While employment, in general, has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, many youth continue to need support, including those from under-represented groups (i.e., youth with disabilities, Indigenous youth, Black and other racialized youth groups). For example:
  • The unemployment rate for Indigenous youth aged 15-24 was 12.2% in December 2022, compared to 10% for non-Indigenous youth.
  • The unemployment rate for Black youth aged 15-34 was 14.8% in March 2023.
  • In March 2023, the unemployment rate for visible minority youth aged 15-24 was 11.4%.
• In 2022-2023, the YESSP is targeted to support over 20,000 opportunities, and CSJ will support 100,000 opportunities.

Past investments

• Since the beginning of the Pandemic, several time-limited investments were made to ensure young people were not left behind. These included:
  • June 2020: $187 million in additional funding for the YESS to create 9,500 additional work opportunities in 2020-2021 for young Canadians in critical and high-demand sectors (e.g., health, community services, and information technology);
  • 2020 Fall Economic Statement: $575.3 million to create 45,300 job placements in 2021-22 and 2022-23; and,
  • Budget 2021: $109.3 million in 2022-2023 for YESSP (excluding ESDC and Global Affairs Canada (GAC)), to create an additional 7,000 youth job placements and supports, and $371.8 million for 2022-2023 to create an additional 75,000 CSJ jobs in summer 2022.
• The 2022 Fall Economic Statement allocated $802.1 million over 3 years starting in 2022-23 for the YESS:
  • $301.4 million over 2 years, starting in 2023-24, through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program;
  • $400.5 million over 2 years, starting in 2023-2024, to Canada Summer Jobs to support a total of approximately 70,000 annual summer job placements; and,
  • $100.2 million over 3 years, starting in 2022-2023, to continue supporting work placements for First Nations youth through the Income Assistance-First Nations Youth Employment Strategy Pilot.

Canada Summer Jobs – Program Budget

Issue/question:

Why is the Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ) 2023 budget lower?

Suggested response:

• During the pandemic, youth faced the highest unemployment rates.
• The Government responded by increasing funding for the Canada Summer Jobs program to help young people.
• Now that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, fortunately youth unemployment rates have improved.
• As part of the Government's ongoing commitment to create opportunities for youth, the Government is investing even more in youth and student programming than pre-pandemic levels.
• In 2023 and 2024 Canada Summer Jobs will create 70,000 quality job opportunities for youth across Canada.
• The way funding is allocated has not changed and continues to be applied consistently across all constituencies.

Key information:

Investment

• The 2022 Fall Economic Statement announced $400.5 million over 2 years, starting in 2023-24, for Canada Summer Jobs to support a total of approximately 70,000 annual summer job placements.
• For CSJ 2023, the program budget is $278.7M compared to $454.3M for CSJ 2022.
• The budget with an Authorized Commitment Level (ACL) for CSJ 2023 is about $334.5M and was $545.1M for CSJ 2022.
• For CSJ 2023, the program budget is $278.7M compared to $263M in 2019, before the pandemic.
• The budget for the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS), including CSJ and YESS program, was $581.9M in 2019 compared to $672.2M in 2023.

Funding Allocation

• The formula to allocate CSJ 2023 funding to Federal Electoral District (constituency) remains the same as in previous years. Historical spending as well as labour market realities, based on unemployment data at the local level, are used to ensure that young people are equipped with the best opportunities available in each riding across the country, every CSJ cycle.
• [Redacted]
• There may be a perceived decrease for some constituencies due to the 2021 change towards a fixed 20% ACL. However, the base program budget (without an ACL) has increased when comparing the 2019 and 2023 budgets.

Background:

• CSJ is part of the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, which is the Government of Canada's initiative to help young people—particularly those facing barriers to employment—get the information and gain the skills, work experience and abilities they need to transition successfully into the labour market. The CSJ program is delivered by Employment and Social Development Canada.
• CSJ provides funding for not-for-profit organizations, public-sector employers, and small businesses with 50 or fewer full-time employees to create quality summer job opportunities for young people between the ages of 15 and 30, including those who face barriers.
• The CSJ program not only provides youth with opportunities to develop and improve their skills, but for some, it provides entry to their first job experience. The program is also responsive to national and local labour market priorities.
• Youth faced the greatest job loss during the pandemic. In response, the Government made historic investments to Canada's Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, including Canada Summer Jobs, to help youth, especially those facing barriers, to find and maintain good jobs. The overall unemployment rate for youth aged 15-24 peaked at 30% in May 2020.
• Since then, the Canadian economy is doing well in many ways. In 2023 Quarter 1, employment in Canada continued to expand, pushing the unemployment rate to a new historical low of 5.0%. The youth unemployment rate has also fallen below the pre-pandemic average of 10.8% to 9.8% (covering March 2022 to February 2023).
• While employment, in general, has recovered to pre-pandemic levels, many youth continue to need support, including those from under-represented groups (i.e., youth with disabilities, Indigenous youth, Black and other racialized youth groups). For example:
  • The unemployment rate for Indigenous youth aged 15-24 was 12.2% in December 2022, compared to 10% for non-Indigenous youth.
  • The unemployment rate for Black youth aged 15-34 was 14.8% in March 2023.
  • In March 2023, the unemployment rate for visible minority youth aged 15-24 was 11.4%.
• The 2022 Fall Economic Statement allocated $802.1 million over 3 years starting in 2022-23 for the YESS:
  • $301.4 million over 2 years, starting in 2023-24, through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program;
  • $400.5 million over 2 years, starting in 2023-2024, to Canada Summer Jobs to support a total of approximately 70,000 annual summer job placements; and,
  • $100.2 million over 3 years, starting in 2022-2023, to continue supporting work placements for First Nations youth through the Income Assistance-First Nations Youth Employment Strategy Pilot.
• Each year, employers withdraw and/or are unable to find youth to fill the number of CSJ positions they were approved for as the projects take place during the summer months. The ACL allows a specified over-commitment of funds, above the initial program budget, that is allocated to eligible projects at the beginning of the program cycle in order to meet the job creation targets.

* Note that the totals are different from the Investment section as they do not include the National Reserve.

Canada Service Corps

Issue/question:

What is the Government of Canada doing to engage more youth in volunteer service, particularly Indigenous and under-served youth who may face barriers to volunteering?

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada recognizes the value of service and volunteering for young people. The Canada Service Corps (CSC) is helping to build a culture of service among youth that empowers young people across Canada to practice and gain leadership skills, grow professional networks and make a positive impact in communities across the country.
• The Canada Service Corps continues to expand and diversify its programming to ensure that youth, especially those facing barriers to volunteering, are included, and encouraged to participate in service opportunities.
• To increase the engagement of Indigenous and under-served youth in the program, the Canada Service Corps prioritizes programming for diverse youth across the country with about 80% of participants being from Indigenous or under-served groups in 2021-2022.
• Since its launch in 2018, CSC has funded over 24,000 service placements and over 6,600 micro-grants for youth across Canada.

Key information:

Investment

• Budget 2016 provided $105 million over 5 years and $25 million per year thereafter ($22 million of which is contribution funding) with a vision of creating a culture of youth service in Canada.
• Budget 2019 allocated an additional $314.8 million over 5 years to the Canada Service Corps starting in 2019–2020, with $83.8 million per year in ongoing funding ($70.8 million of which is contribution funding).

Results

• Launched in 2018 after an initial design phase, the CSC provides funding to recipient organizations to create thousands of service opportunities annually for youth. Between 2018 and 2022, over 30,000 youth took part in funded service placements and micro-grants.
• CSC provides funding for organizations to establish service opportunities for youth that support CSC program themes including advancing reconciliation, preserving the environment, and strengthening youth resilience.
• Both service placement and micro-grant opportunities are highly effective in reaching rural and remote youth at 24% for service placements and 22% for micro-grants in comparison to the Canadian population percentage of 7% (rural).
• Projects include national and regional youth volunteer service placements and micro-grants. Micro-grants provide youth with micro-contributions of up to $5,000 to lead their own service project in their community.

Background:

• The most recent Call for Proposals (CFP) was open between February and March 2022 to establish new agreements with organizations beginning in Fall
  2022-2023 and continuing through 2023-2024.
• This CFP aimed to expand the program and strengthen diversity by reaching a larger number of Indigenous and under-served youth to reflect the Government of Canada's ongoing priorities around supporting diversity and inclusion.
• To enhance engagement of Indigenous and under-served youth, this CFP required organizations to set a participation target of 50% Indigenous and under-served youth across all funding streams. Results have been positive with about 80% of participants being from Indigenous or under-served groups in 2021-2022.
• In addition to the original micro-grant stream, CSC also offered 2 new micro-grant streams, including the:
  • Accelerator micro-grant stream that is geared towards supporting youth who have taken part in a previous CSC service opportunity to facilitate scaling-up of projects; and
  • Diversity micro-grant stream that funds organizations where at least 50% of their leadership/governance identify as members of the Indigenous and under-served communities they serve. This eligibility criterion is intended to give youth access to leaders and mentors who may have similar lived experiences, a theme that emerged as important in consultations with youth during the design phase of the program.

Gender Equality and Youth

Issue/question:

What is the Government doing to advance gender equality as it relates to youth?

Suggested response:

• Young people are actively working to shape a better future, including building a more inclusive Canada.
• Equality for women and gender-diverse people will be driven by the youth of today as they move through the education system, into the workforce, and through parenthood.
• The youth population in Canada is more diverse than ever and will only become more so. For example, the proportion of transgender and non-binary Canadians is much higher in younger generations. The number of young Indigenous people is expected to grow by more than 40% by 2024.
• Some youth are impacted differently or disproportionately by gender norms and inequality, depending on their intersecting identity factors, which can lead to negative mental health impacts and other barriers.
• The Government of Canada is committed to engaging, encouraging, and empowering the voices of young people of all genders to be leaders in shaping a more equal society, through:
  • Ensuring young women's voices and opinions are considered in the development of government policies and programs through the Prime Minister's Youth Council and other youth engagement;
  • Providing opportunities for young women to be leaders in their communities while promoting civic engagement and inclusion, including on gender equality, through programs like the Canada Service Corps (CSC);
  • Through the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, providing new capacity-building and projects funding for 2SLGBTQI+ community organizations, including 2SLGBTQI+ youth;
  • Engaging youth online to increase awareness of gender-based violence and empower young people in Canada to shift behaviours, through a public awareness campaign.

Key information:

Investment

• Since 2015, the Department of WAGE has provided $45.3M to youth-focused projects.
• Through Budget 2016 and Budget 2019 investments, CSC is providing $92.8M in contributions funding each year to organizations which provide service opportunities for youth to make a difference in their communities, positioning young women as leaders in their communities.
• Through the Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, providing new capacity-building and projects funding for 2SLGBTQI+ community organizations, which will prioritize 2SLGBTQI+ communities experiencing additional marginalization, including 2SLGBTQI+ youth. Applications for the ongoing call for proposals for the 2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund will be accepted until May 9, 2023.

Results

• Budget 2018 provided $7.2 million over 5 years for the initiative, National Conversations on Gender Equality with Young Canadians, which resulted in:
  • A National Youth Working Group, made up of 22 diverse youth from across the country, that co-developed an approach to engage young people on gender equality.
  • Work with five National Indigenous Organizations to engage with Indigenous youth on gender equality in a culturally-relevant way.
• Since its launch in 2018, CSC has funded over 24,000 service placements and over 6,600 micro-grants for youth across Canada. Girls and young women are over-represented among CSC participants which is allowing them to develop meaningful life skills and experience.
  • In 2021-2022, 60% of Canada Service Corps participants identified as female and 16% of participants identified as 2SLGBTQI+.

WAGE Project examples

• Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada was one of the five Indigenous organizations that received funding to engage with Inuit youth on gender equality. They received $400,000 over 4 years for their project 'Katinngak: National Conversation on Gender Equality with Young Inuit Canadians." This project focused on Inuit youth engagement and empowerment towards gender equality and gender diversity, recognizing the intersectionality of gender issues in the context of gender norms, values, and experiences in Inuit communities.
• White Ribbon Canada received $499,519 to engage men and boys to promote gender equality and prevent violence. Part of this project focuses on implementing a social marketing campaign, featuring compelling calls to action to inspire young men across Canada to change their attitudes and behaviors, to seek help when needed, and to embrace their roles as allies and change makers.
• Platform (previously Young Women's Leadership Network) received $749,935, for the Framing Our Future project. This project will support capacity building among allied organizations to encourage civic leadership and participation among Black, Indigenous and racialized young women and gender-diverse youth. The project will also develop an approach to support Black, Indigenous and racialized young women and gender-diverse youth to take action to advance gender equality at the national level.
• ARC Foundation is funded for $396,497 to adapt, pilot and evaluate models to expand the capacity of K-12 educators to create schools inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identities for all students. By the end of the project ARC Foundation will have enhanced equality for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth by equipping educators, school staff and community partners with critical knowledge, tools and supports for inclusive and positive spaces.

Canada Service Corps Project Examples

• Women's Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor received $1,310,557 in CSC funding over 4 years (2019-2023) to provide social, professional and personal development opportunities to underrepresented female youth by engaging them in the co-creation and participation in meaningful service opportunities that respond to community gaps and needs, ultimately leading positive change in their community.
• Achēv's EmpowerHER project received $716,304 in CSC funding over 4 years (2019-2023) to increase civic engagement among female youth while teaching them leadership and life skills through in-class training prior to completing volunteer service placements in their community.

PMYC on Gender Equailty

• Council members joined with other strong advocates in the effort to eliminate the three-month blood donor deferral period for gay and bisexual men.
• More recently, they have been actively involved with policy makers to bring the sexual and reproductive health and rights perspective under a national pharmacare plan.

Background:

• Rigid gender norms and gender inequalities continue to affect the lives of youth in Canada. Some youth are impacted differently or disproportionately, depending on intersectional identity factors (e.g. gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, sex characteristics, race, Indigeneity, etc).
• For example, rigid gender norms can place undue expectations on youth and impact mental health, attitudes and behaviours, and healthy relationships. For example:
  • Young women and girls may internalize norms on the ideal feminine body. These norms can lead young women and girls to develop mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders, among others, when they feel pressure to try to conform with these norms.
  • Young men and boys are often expected to, or believe that they should, hide their emotions. This real or perceived expectation may lead men to feel like they cannot reach out for help when they experience hardship or affect their ability to develop healthy relationships with other youth.
  • Young transgender, gender diverse and non-binary people may face particular challenges when they feel they must comply with rigid gender norms or when they face backlash for their noncompliance.
• Department officials continue to seek opportunities to include youth in relevant activities related to the achievement of gender equality. Coordination with the Youth Secretariat at Heritage Canada is critical to ensuring complementarity. In addition, there are currently 12 youth advisory councils, featuring youth of all genders, established across federal departments and agencies providing counsel specific to their specific mandates.
• The Prime Minister's Youth Council welcomed its sixth cohort of engaged young people from across Canada in February 2023 to advise government decision makers. 11 of the Council's 16 members are young women, coming from a range of diverse backgrounds.

Women in the Economy

Issue/question:

How does gender disparity affect women's economic security and poverty?

Suggested response:

• Canadian women are among the most educated in the world. In 2021, approximately 4.4 million working aged women in Canada obtained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared to less than 3.7 million men. In addition, women's participation in the labour market has increased over the past decades.
• However, persistent inequities and inequalities continue to affect their economic participation and financial security.
• Women continue to face pay equity challenges and underrepresentation in high-paying jobs. In 2022, women earned 88 cents for every dollar earned by men, and earning gaps are evident in all major occupation categories. This gap is even wider for Indigenous and racialized women, and for immigrant women.
• The Government of Canada is committed to advancing women's economic security through a number of key initiatives, including:
  • $1.7B over 5 years to support hourly wage increases for personal support workers, who are predominantly women;
  • A one-time grocery rebate providing $2.5B in targeted inflation relief to the Canadians who need it most.
  • $160M over 3 years to ensure continued support for initiatives that advance women's economic participation and prosperity, through the Women's Program;
  • $30B over 5 years to build a Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care System so that parents can fully joint back labour market at an affordable price; and
  • Ensuring pay equity between women and men working in federally regulated sectors such as banks, air transportation, and telecommunications.

Key information:

Investment

• Since 2015, the Women's Program has invested $380M in 910 projects across all provinces and territories, in rural and urban contexts, to help reduce barriers to the full economic participation of women. This includes projects that focus on Indigenous, racialized, and immigrant women.
• In 2022-23,168 projects were considered active and funded through the Women's Program to support women's economic participation and prosperity. These projects range from practical solutions to increase women's representation in the labour market to change management practices being tested and applied in workplaces.

Results

• In 2021-22, through the Women's Program, 283,856 women gained skills and knowledge to create more equitable conditions for women in various economic sectors.

Project Examples

Alternative Entrepreneurship for Women

• In 2023, la Société d'aide au développement des collectivités de Shawinigan received $296,000 for a project aiming at achieving full participation of part-time women entrepreneurs (called 'flexipreneures') and enabling them to improve their economic security. The project will reinforce their autonomy and empowerment by experimenting a tailored approach based on their needs and reality (e.g., financial and technical support).

Allies in the Workplace - Creating Change, Advancing Women, and Educating the Aviation Industry

• In 2022, Elevate Aviation received funding to address systemic barriers within the aviation sector in Canada and reduce labour shortage in this industry. Various assessment tools will be used to measure the current Equity Diversity and Inclusion status of companies within the aviation industry and propose practical plans to reduce gender segregation, and advance gender equality (incl. developing succession plans to achieve the 50-30 challenge). The project will advance inclusive policies and practices, help address persistent harmful gender norms and attitudes, and support positive distribution of authority, voices, and decision-making power.

Background:

• Although Canadian women have made substantial gains in their labour force participation in the past decades and are among the most educated in the world, gender disparities continue to affect women's earning abilities.
• In 2022, women in Canada earned 88 cents for every dollar earned by men, 1 cent less than they earned in 2020.
• There are significant discrepancies between industries when looking at the average hourly wage rate by gender. For instance, in the professional, scientific, and technical services industry, women earned 21% less than men in 2022 ($35.08 vs $44.48).
• Intersectional factors demonstrate even wider wage gaps, especially when considering indigeneity and immigration status.
  • In 2018^{Footnote 2} , average hourly wages fluctuated significantly between women when comparing to men overall. In fact, for every dollar earned by men, women overall were earning 87 cents, very recent immigrant women earned 69 cents, recent immigrant women earned 74 cents, and Indigenous women earned 80 cents.
• A number of factors contribute to gender disparity in the economy, including:
  • Gender segregation in education fields: Despite some improvement in women's enrollment, gender segregation in post-secondary fields of study remains, both in apprenticeship and university curricula. In 2020-2021, women represented 39% of students enrolled in STEM, and were overrepresented in public-facing, service-based, and care-related sectors, which are generally associated lower average wages compared to male-dominated professional occupations.
  • Industry and occupational gender segregation in the workplace: The distribution of women and men across industries where male-dominated professional occupations are typically associated with much higher average wage.
  • Care responsibilities: Insufficient options for child and elder care that result in women doing more unpaid caregiving and having less time for paid work, which translates into part-time or temporary work. In 2022, caring for children was cited as the top reason for part-time work by core-aged women (27.7% compared to 5.9% of men citing caring for children as the reason for part-time work).
  • Societal norms and biases: Gender norms, stigma and other discriminatory practices continue to influence the value of jobs and wages, with work done by women being undervalued.
• Women are also more subject to financial insecurity as they are over-represented in low-paying occupations, accounting for more than 53% of employees earning less than $12 per hour in 2021 (both full- and part-time).

Gender Equality in STEM, Skilled Trades, and Key Economic Sectors

Issue/question:

What policies and programming has the Government of Canada advanced to increase gender equality in the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) and skilled trades fields?

Suggested response:

• Canada is facing a shortage of skilled workers in the STEM and the skilled trades sectors. The Government supports increasing women's participation in these fields to address these shortfalls and advance gender equality.
• The Government funds women's organizations that help women access economic opportunities. They help underrepresented apprentices succeed in skilled trade careers, connect first-year apprentices with small and medium-sized employers, and strive to increase the participation and retention of women in STEM for both students and professionals.
• Since November 2015, Women and Gender Equality Canada has invested $22.7M in projects to advance women's participation in non-traditional professions in which they are underrepresented, including in STEM.
• Budget 2023 proposes to provide $160M to the Women's Program, which will strengthen women's organizations that help women access economic opportunities.

Key information:

Investment

• Since November 2015, WAGE's Women's Program has invested $22.7M in support of projects to advance women's participation in non-traditional professions in which they are underrepresented, including STEM.

Project examples

• The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) of Canada Inc. received $999K to establish a network of business leader ambassadors to help organizations build capacity to leverage the leadership advantages of women and promote gender equality in management.
• The Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades and Technology (CCWESTT) received $697,897 to design and implement policies and practices which will increase the participation and opportunities for women in the labour market and engage men and boys to combat harmful gender norms and advance gender equality in Science, Engineering, Trades and Technology (SETT).
• The Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST) received $698,080 to create a more equitable job access by connecting a diversity of women to the STEM industry's needs, and focusing on accountability for equitable hiring, transparency metrics for participation, pay equity for work of equal value, and successful leadership advancement.
• The Black Women's Business Network received $489,850 to address systemic barriers preventing Black women and girls from equitably accessing and participating in high-paying resilient technology jobs in British Columbia and Alberta.

Background:

• Despite significant increases in women's levels of education and labour market participation, women continue to face barriers from reaching their full economic potential. Among these barriers are the effects of occupational segregation by gender.
• As a result, women are overrepresented in low-paying and part-time occupations and underrepresented in full-time, high-paying ones. Having more women participate in STEM and skilled trades will contribute to women's economic security. More men working in education and health services and care work will also contribute towards achieving more gender parity.
• The skilled trades offer women opportunities for well paying, rewarding jobs in sectors across the economy. The Government, through Employment and Social Development Canada has invested in supporting more women to enter and succeed in the skilled trades.
• Specific Government initiatives that support women's participation in STEM and the skilled trades include:
  • Budget 2022 included $84.2M over 4 years to double funding for the Union Training and Innovation Program. Each year, the new funding will help 3,500 apprentices from underrepresented groups begin and succeed in careers in the skilled trades through mentorship, career services, and job-matching (led by ESDC).
  • Budget 2021 invested $470M over 3 years to Employment and Social Development Canada to establish a new Apprenticeship Service to help 55,000 first-year apprentices in construction and manufacturing Red Seal trades connect with opportunities at small-and-medium-sized employers.
  • CanCode is an Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada funding program that provides financial support for organizations to equip Canadian youth, including traditionally underrepresented groups, with the skills they need to be prepared for further studies. This includes advanced digital skills, like coding and STEM courses, leading to jobs of the future.
  • The Chairs for Women in Science and Engineering (CWSE) program, which is run by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), strives to increase the participation and retention of women in science and engineering fields for both students and professionals.
  • The NSERC PromoScience program provides financial support for organizations working with young Canadians to promote an understanding of STEM. These organizations provide hands-on learning experiences for young students and their teachers.
  • The Dr. Roberta Bondar STEM Career Development program aims to inspire women, nonbinary, and gender diverse people working in STEM to move forward in STEM fields, and to eventually transition into scientific and management leadership in the Canadian STEM domain.
  • Building on the vision outlined in Canada's Digital Government Strategy, the Government of Canada's Digital Ambition provides a clear, long-term strategic vision for the government to advance digital service delivery, cyber security, talent recruitment, and privacy. This includes the promotion of talent management initiatives which will increase the representation of women and diversity groups within government.

Housing and Homelessness

Issue/question:

How is the current housing crisis affecting women's and 2SLGBTQI+ access to adequate housing options?

Suggested response:

• Having access to a safe, affordable, and adequate home should not be a preoccupation for Canadians; it is a question of dignity and a human right.
• Unfortunately, housing accessibility and affordability remain prominent challenges in Canada; especially for low-income families, survivors of domestic violence, lone-parent families, Indigenous women, youth, and 2SLGBTQI+ peoples.
• Insufficient affordable home supply combined with the rise of shelter costs also increase the likelihood of homelessness for communities that are already at greater risk.
• This is why the Government of Canada is supporting the progressive realization of the right to housing through various initiatives, including:
  • Building more affordable housing for those in greatest needs through the National Housing Co-Investment Fund;
  • Improving the quality and affordability of housing for Indigenous Peoples through an Urban, Rural, Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy; and
  • Taking actions to prevent and reduce chronic homelessness nationally by 50% by 2027-2028 through Canada's Homelessness Strategy.

Key information:

Investment

• Since 2015, WAGE has funded 38 projects, for a total of $18M, to support organizations aiming to improve the housing situation for women and 2SLGBTQI+ individuals. As of March 2023, 29 projects were still considered active.

Results

• Since 2015, the 38 projects supported a wide range of communities, including: 2SLGBTQI+ individuals, youth, individuals living on low income or with disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, immigrants and racialized individuals, and individuals living in official minority communities.

Project examples

Un toit à soi: étape importante vers l'autonomie et la sécurité (QC)

From 2021 to 2024, WAGE is supporting a project led by Montréal-based organization Un toît pour Elles that aims to address the challenges of women victims of sexual exploitation, specifically racialized and Indigenous women, and provide them with safe and accessible transitional and long-term housing options.

• By the end of the project, through a partnership with the Office municipal habitation and the City of Montréal, accommodation space for women and girls victimized by sexual exploitation in the Metropolitan Montréal area will have increased by 10%.
• A model pathway for leaving prostitution will be co-developed by the organization and women survivors and could be applicable across the province.

Honouring 2SLGBTQQIA+ Indigenous Staff and Street Family Voices Toward Ending Indigenous Homelessness (BC)

Through this 39-month project, Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness Society (ACEHS) will engage with unhoused and at risk 2SLGBTQQIA+ Indigenous youth to develop a youth housing model.

• By the end of this project ACEHS will have planned and piloted a social enterprise initiative and created a series of policies, toolkits, resources and training modules to strengthen ACEHS' programs preventing violence and addressing homelessness.

Background:

• In Canada, there is currently a shortage of affordable units and, despite incentives to boost the construction of new homes, construction remains slow due to factors such as labour shortages in the construction industry, the rising cost of materials, and rigid housing regulations.
• The lack of adequate housing has significant implications for individuals, including higher incidence of domestic violence, higher rates of infectious disease and chronic illnesses, increased safety issues, poorer education outcomes, and increased mental health issues.
• The growing national housing crisis and the high cost of living continue to disproportionally impact some communities, making them more vulnerable to eviction, homelessness, and dependent to external supports (e.g., government subsidies, shelters, friend and/or family support):
  • LGBTQ2 individuals, racialized and Indigenous women are more likely to experience housing discrimination. Women, particularly single mothers, are more likely to experience harassment and discrimination when looking for rental housing. Young women and young gender diverse people are disproportionately at risk of eviction.
  • Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ2 Canadians and Black women all experience unsheltered homelessness at disproportionate rates. For example, according to 2018 Point-in-Time, 21% of surveyed homeless youth identified as belonging to LGBTQ2 communities.
  • Women, especially women with previous experience of homelessness (24%), Black women (14%), women with long-term illness or disability (13%), Indigenous women (10%), and lone mothers (9%) are more likely to live in subsidized housing.
  • Separated, divorced and widowed women, as well as women with lower levels of educational attainment are also more likely to live in subsidized housing.
  • Rental affordability is a major concern for lower-income Canadians living in urban centers. In 2019, only 3% of neighbourhoods in Canada's census metropolitan areas were affordable for a full-time minimum wage worker to afford a decent two-bedroom apartment.
• Housing resources that are safe, accessible, and affordable are insufficient, contributing to a vicious circle for survivors of gender-based violence and increasing incidence of homelessness for those already at greater risk of precarity. Moreover, affordability has been signaled as a major barrier to leaving emergency shelters and accessing long-term housing options.

Gender Equality in Leadership and Decision-Making Positions

Issue/question:

What is the Government of Canada doing to advance gender equality in leadership and decision-making positions?

Suggested response:

• Across all industries, women occupy only about 37% of senior management positions and just over 46% of other management positions.
• Since 2015, WAGE has provided over $118M in funding to support close to 240 projects that strengthen women's participation in leadership and decision-making roles.
• Budget 2023's proposed $160M investment in the Women's Program will ensure continued support for initiatives that promote gender equality in decision making.
• WAGE's work complements the Government of Canada's broader actions, such as:
  • Amending the Public Service Employment Act to affirm the importance of a diverse and inclusive workforce free of biases and barriers in hiring; and
  • Launching the 50-30 Challenge to promote gender equality and diversity within Canadian organizations.
    

Key information:

Investment

• Since 2015, WAGE has invested over $118M in almost 240 projects to advance women's representation in leadership and decision-making roles, including:
• Support for Indigenous Women's Leadership:
  • WAGE has provided funding to projects for the Assembly of First Nations, Pauktuutit and Women of the Métis Nation to empower and increase Indigenous women's leadership and democratic participation in their communities.

Results

• In 2021-22, projects funded under this priority area developed and disseminated 50 different resources to increase awareness of what services and supports were available and how to access them. As a result of these projects, 179,292 women gained access to services and supports that resulted in better opportunities for leadership positions in the fields of education, employment, health and social services.
• In addition, 44% of projects in this category resulted in changes to policies and institutions. These projects developed and disseminated 67 resources, undertook advocacy, and leveraged 122 partnerships and collaborations, in order to bring about changes to institutional processes and cultures.

Project examples

• In 2021, WAGE funded Fora: Network for Change for a total amount of $496,847 for a 29-month project supporting COVID-19 recovery and prioritizes girls' and women's participation in the labour force by placing young women with lived experiences of the pandemic in decision-making spaces.
• In 2021, WAGE funded the National Association of Friendship Centres for a total amount of $675,300 to address discriminatory legislation, policies, and practices that prevent women and girls from fully participating in social, political and economic life. This project will amplify the voices of urban Indigenous women through research, policy development, and advocacy work. In addition, an Indigenous GBA Plus lens will be applied to policymaking. The project will end in 2024.

Background:

• Despite progress, women, including diverse women, and gender-diverse people continue to face barriers to obtaining leadership and decision-making roles in Canadian society, including in politics.
• The Government of Canada is committed to help advance gender equality in leadership and decision-making spaces.
  • Amongst businesses and corporations, this advancement includes:
    • Passing Bill C-25, which requires federally incorporated companies to disclose diversity information to shareholders. Budget 2021 committed to public consultations on measures that would apply these requirements to federally-regulated financial institutions and Crown Corporations.
    • Promoting the 50-30 Challenge, which encourages organizations to increase the representation of diverse groups within the workplace. Close to 1400 organizations are participating under the leadership of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
    • Investments to modernize the Employment Equity Act.
  • In February 2016, the Government committed to an open, transparent and merit-based process for selecting Governor-in-Council (GiC) appointments. With this commitment, as of January 3, 2023, according to the Privy Council Office, 51.4.% of appointees identify as women.

Gender Equality in Politics

Issue/question:

How is the Government of Canada advancing gender parity and diversity of elected officials?

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada is committed to building a diverse and inclusive government. A greater number of women in politics leads to a broader diversity of voices, better decision-making, and more equitable outcomes for everyone. This is a topic I also discuss with my provincial and territorial colleagues.
• As of the September 2021 federal election, there is a record number of women and 2SLGBTQI+ Members of Parliament.
  • 103 women were elected to the 338-member House of Commons, representing a gain of three seats from the record high of 100 women during the previous parliamentary session.
  • 8 current Members of Parliament identify as 2SLGBTQI+, including the first openly Two-Spirit MP, up four seats from 2019.
• The Government has maintained a gender-balanced Cabinet since 2015, with women currently holding prominent Ministerial positions, including Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, National Defence, and Foreign Affairs.
• Since 2015, the Department for Women and Gender Equality has provided over $13.9M in funding to support 30 projects that enhance women's participation in politics.

Key information:

Investment

• Since November 2015, through Supporting Women's Empowerment, WAGE's Women's Program has invested over $13.9M in 30 projects to promote and enhance women's participation in politics.

Results

• The 30 projects WAGE has funded have reached an estimated 14,000 people and have resulted in the development of 176 resources including 24 guides, 14 strategic plans and 8 toolkits.

Project examples

• In 2021, WAGE funded the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) for a total amount of $1,500,000 for a 36-month project that aims to increase women's political participation and retention in municipal government and support of a more diverse and inclusive enabling environment by working in partnership with FCM's membership, provincial and territorial associations, and key stakeholders to address systemic barriers, strengthen capacity, and mobilize knowledge across municipalities in Canada.
• The Groupe femmes, politique et démocratie (GFPD) lead a 43-month project with 5 other organizations, which helped to create conditions that promote women's active participation in political life. Stakeholders from regional county municipalities were invited to participate in consultations to develop gender equality policies and action plans. The knowledge and tools created were then shared across Quebec to foster the emergence of a political culture that values the active participation of women. This project created a total of 13 equality policies in various regional county municipalities.
• The Women Transforming Cities International Society received $493,652 in funding for a 30-month project to increase representation of diverse women's voices in municipal political activities.

Background:

• Barriers that prevent gender equality in politics include, but are not limited to, a lack of support for families, fear and the real threat of negative attacks based on gender norms, difficulty obtaining private donations, and biased perceptions about appropriate career paths.
• Research indicates that women who participate in politics experience a spectrum of gender-based violence, in both physical and online environments, including physical, psychological, economic and symbolic actions or threats resulting in harm or suffering. Violence against women in politics is intersectional: racialized individuals, 2SLGBTQI+ persons, the economically disadvantaged, persons with disabilities, and younger women tend to experience disproportionate levels of violence in politics.
• To reduce barriers to participation in Parliament, progress has been made to improve work-life balance in the House of Commons, including actions such as scheduling votes after Question Period instead of in the evenings. The Treasury Board Minister's 2021 mandate letter includes a commitment to work with the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons to develop a plan to make Parliament a more inclusive place for families.
• To reduce barriers to participation in the electoral process, Bill C-76 amended the Canada Elections Act, allowing candidates to use their own funds, in addition to campaign funds, to pay for disability-related child care, or other relevant home or healthcare expenses; and to increase the reimbursement rate to 90% for such expenses

WAGE Funding Overview

Issue/question:

How does Women and Gender Equality Canada support communities to advance gender equality?

Suggested response:

• Gender equality has not yet been achieved in Canada. As of 2022, the World Economic Forum rated Canada 22^nd in their comparison of global countries. Unfortunately, barriers still remain.
• Since the creation of the Department of Women and Gender Equality Canada 5 years ago, we have advanced gender equality by actively promoting the inclusion of all people in Canada's economic, social, and political life. More specifically, we have:
  • Invested over $1 billion to prevent and address gender-based violence, including the implementation of the National Action Plan to End Gender-based violence;
  • Provided almost $450 million to improve economic security and prosperity as well as leadership opportunities for women and girls; and,
  • Supported the capacity of 2SLGBTQI+ communities and the development of the Federal Action Plan by investing $140 million.
• The Government of Canada continues to make gender equality a priority, just as it did in 1982 with the creation of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Forum for the Ministers responsible for the Status of Women.

Key information:

Investments in the Women's Movement

• Since 2015, WAGE has invested over $380M under the Women's Program in 910 projects to advance women's equality, including:
  • Budget 2018's $100M for projects to strengthen capacity of the women's movement.
  • Budget 2019's $160M for projects tackling systemic barriers for women in the areas of leadership, economic security and prosperity, and gender-based violence.
• Budget 2023's additional $160M investment will sustain historic funding for organizations serving women.

Investments in the 2SLGBTQI+ Movement

• Since 2019, WAGE has invested up to $42.5M in up to 116 projects to amplify the 2SLGBTQI+ movement through the 2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund and 2SLGBTQI+ Projects Fund.
  • To advance the 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, a new $25.5M call for proposals for the 2SLGBTQI+ Community Capacity Fund launched on March 13 and closes on May 9, 2023. Funds will enhance the capacity of 2SLGBTQI+ organizations.
  • As part of the 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan, up to $35M in new Projects Fund support was announced in August 2022. Projects will work to address barriers to 2SLGBTQI+ equality.

Investments to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence

• Since 2015, WAGE has invested over $288M in 680 projects to prevent and address GBV. Additional investments underway include:
  • $55M to bolster Indigenous women's and 2SLGBTQQIA+ organizations' ability to deliver GBV prevention programming. A Call for Proposals closed March 2022 and projects are now being implemented.
  • $105M to enhance the GBV Program. A Call for proposals to Address GBV through Promising Practices and Community-based Research closed February 2023.
  • Over $279M in COVID-19 emergency funding to 1,400 organizations providing critical supports and services to those experiencing GBV.
• Budget 2022 invested $539.3M over 5 years, starting in 2022-23, "to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence".

Project examples

• Women's Program:
  • Elevate Aviation is receiving $460,776 over 25 months to address systemic barriers within the aviation sector in Canada by: developing assessment tools for the Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) status of aviation companies and a plan for employers to implement in their workplaces; as well as engaging and providing training to advance gender equality in aviation.
• 2SLGBTQI+ Funding:
  • Rainbow Faith and Freedom is receiving $400,000 over 24 months to work with 2SLGBTQI+ communities and faith institutions to end religious-based discrimination in the faith sector in Ontario, through activities such as developing a survey to evaluate inclusion in the faith sector; an awareness campaign through community partnerships; and educational programming and training to help religious organizations make changes.
• Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Program:
  • The Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women is receiving $1,000,000 over 4 years to develop and evaluate a "Community of Care" approach. The approach will be designed to improve supports to African Nova Scotian and Indigenous women survivors of gender-based violence.

Background:

Programming for the Women's Movement

• The Women's Program supports time-limited projects aiming to achieve the full participation of women in the economic, social, and democratic life of Canada by fundamentally changing policies and practices, resource distribution, networks, power dynamics, and gender norms and attitudes – resulting in systemic change.

Programming for the 2SLGBTQI+ Movement

• The 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan renewed time-limited investments for these initiatives with a total additional $75 million until March 2027.

Programming to Prevent and Address Gender-based Violence

• Budget 2021 and Budget 2022 announced new investments to advance the National Action Plan to end Gender-based Violence, including funding to support crisis hotlines, enhance the GBV Program, address root causes of violence against Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA+ people, emergency funding to GBV organizations, and bilateral funding agreements with provinces and territories to support the National Action Plan implementation.

ESDC Funding Overview

Issue/question:

What is the Government doing to help set young Canadians up for success on their journey towards a better career and future?

Suggested response:

• Youth faced the greatest job loss during the pandemic. In response, the Government made historic investments to help youth find and maintain good jobs.
• Now that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, fortunately youth unemployment rates have improved.
• However, many youth continue to need support, including those from under-represented groups, such as youth with disabilities, Indigenous youth, Black youth and other racialized youth groups. For example, in March 2023, the unemployment rate for Black youth was 5% higher than the overall youth unemployment rate.
• The nature of how we work is also changing. To keep pace with in-demand skills, young Canadians need supports that provide inclusive opportunities for leadership and career development.
• This is why the Government of Canada has continued to invest in measures that create quality jobs and volunteer service opportunities for youth. For example:
• $197.7M in 2024-2025, via Budget 2023, to the Student Work Placement Program to continue creating quality work-integrated learning opportunities. In 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, the Program will support the creation of up to 40,000 work placements per year for post-secondary students across various in-demand sectors.
• $802.1M, via the 2022 Fall Economic Statement, over 3 years starting in 2022-23, for the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy, including:
  • $301.4 million over two years through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program;
  • $400.5 million over two years for Canada Summer Jobs to support 70,000 annual jobs placements; and
  • $100.2 million over three years to continue supporting work placements for First Nations youth through the Income Assistance-First Nations Youth Employment Strategy Pilot.
• $22M annually via Budget 2016 and $70.8M annually via Budget 2019 for the Canada Service Corps to support the creation of volunteer service opportunities. Between 2018 and 2022, over 30,000 youth took part in funded service placements and micro-grants.
• The Government continues to recognize the importance of empowering young Canadians to reach their full potential as the leaders of today and tomorrow.

Key information:

Investment

Student Work Placement (SWP) Program

• Budget 2023 provides $197.7 million in 2024-25 to the Student Work Placement (SWP) Program to continue creating quality work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for students through partnerships between employers and post-secondary education institutions.
• In 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, the Program will support the creation of 40,000 WIL opportunities per year across various sectors nationwide.

Youth Employment and Skills Strategy (YESS) Program

• Since the beginning of the Pandemic, several time-limited investments were made to ensure young people were not left behind. These included:
  • June 2020: $187 million in additional funding for the YESS to create 9,500 additional work opportunities in 2020-2021 for young Canadians in critical and high-demand sectors (e.g., health, community services, and information technology);
  • 2020 Fall Economic Statement: $575.3 million to create 45,300 job placements in 2021-22 and 2022-23; and,
  • Budget 2021: $109.3 million in 2022-2023 for YESSP (excluding ESDC and GAC), to create an additional 7,000 youth job placements and supports, and $371.8 million for 2022-2023 to create an additional 75,000 CSJ jobs in summer 2022.
• The 2022 Fall Economic Statement allocated $802.1 million over 3 years starting in 2022-23 for the YESS, including:
  • $301.4 million over 2 years, starting in 2023-24, through the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy Program;
  • $400.5 million over 2 years, starting in 2023-24, to Canada Summer Jobs to support a total of approximately 70,000 annual summer job placements; and,
  • $100.2 million over 3 years, starting in 2022-23, to continue supporting work placements for First Nations youth through the Income Assistance-First Nations Youth Employment Strategy Pilot.

Canada Summer Jobs (CSJ)

• Budget 2021 provided $371.8 million for 2022-2023 to create an additional 75,000 jobs for a total of 220,000 jobs over 2021-2022 and 2022-2023.
• Additional recent investments, included:
  • 2020 Fall Economic Statement to support up to 120,000 job placements in 2021-2022; and,
  • 10,000 additional job placements for youth added with an investment of $61.4M in 2020-2021.
• The 2022 Fall Economic Statement allocated $400.5 million over 2 years, starting in 2023-24, to Canada Summer Jobs to support approximately 70,000 annual summer job placements.

Canada Service Corps (CSC)

• Budget 2016 provided $105 million over 5 years and $25 million per year thereafter ($22 million of which is contribution funding) with a vision of creating a culture of youth service in Canada.
• Budget 2019 allocated an additional $314.8 million over 5 years to the CSC program starting in 2019–2020, with $83.8 million per year in ongoing funding ($70.8 million of which is contribution funding).

Results

SWP Program

• Launched in 2017-2018 as a small-scale pilot to better prepare post-secondary students for the world of work, the SWP Program has grown from offering 10,000 WIL opportunities over 4 years, to its recent high of 50,000, in 2021-2022.
• To date, the Program has consistently exceeded targets to support the creation of over 100,000 opportunities for post-secondary students across Canada.

YESS

• YESS programming is delivered across 12 federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations. As a horizontal initiative the YESS enables the federal Government to:
  • Serve a much broader range of youth, across regions and sectors, including youth with disabilities and youth experiencing multiple barriers;
  • Address priorities with centralized funding decision, integrated results monitoring, evaluation, and financial accountability;
  • Foster collaboration, innovation and program complementarity;
  • Leverage expertise of departments and organizations across various sectors (e.g., STEM, culture); and
  • Provide a cohesive response to emerging issues and labour market evidence impacting youth.

CSJ

• For CSJ 2021, the program has surpassed its target of creating 120,000 jobs with more than 124,000 CSJ placements created.
• For CSJ 2022, the program has surpassed its target of creating 100,000 jobs with more than 114,000 CSJ placements created.
• CSJ 2023 is aiming to provide 70,000 opportunities.

CSC

• Since its launch in 2018, CSC has funded over 24,000 service placements and over 6,600 micro-grants for youth across Canada.

Background:

SWP Program

• The SWP Program supports partnerships between industry and post-secondary institutions to create quality work placements for students in all disciplines. The SWP Program helps post-secondary students to develop work-ready skills, employers to recruit and develop talent, and post-secondary institutions to adapt to changing labour market needs. Placements are WIL opportunities that help post-secondary students to bring together academic learning and applied work experience, and can include co-ops, internships, and mentorship programs.

YESS

• The YESS is a horizontal initiative that is delivered by 12 federal government departments, agencies and Crown Corporations to support the successful transition of youth into the labour market through access to skills, training, employment opportunities and wrap-around supports, with a focus on under-represented youth facing barriers. The Strategy, which consists of 2 program streams - the YESS Program and Canada Summer Jobs - aims to ensure that young people (aged 15-30), particularly youth facing barriers, gain the skills, work experience and abilities they need to make a successful transition into the labour market.

CSJ

• The CSJ, delivered solely by ESDC, provides wage subsidies to employers from not-for-profit organizations, the public-sector, and private sector organizations with 50 or fewer full-time employees, to create quality summer work experiences (from April to September) for young people aged 15 to 30 years.

CSC

• The CSC promotes civic engagement among young people through access to meaningful volunteer service opportunities. Launched in 2018, after an initial design phase it currently provides funding to recipient organizations to create thousands of service opportunities per year for youth.

Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces

Issue/question:

Stakeholders recently provided advice on a national gender-based violence survey. What is this survey and what are the government's plans for it?

Suggested response:

• Everyone has the right to live free from violence. Preventing and addressing gender-based violence and supporting survivors requires coordinated actions informed by evidence and lived experience.
• As part of the Federal Strategy on Gender based-violence, the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces was the first national survey on gender-based violence in Canada. It provided the first ever gendered data on the prevalence and nature of intimate partner violence.
• In fall 2022, the Government of Canada engaged with survivors, academics, researchers, and community-based organizations serving people who have experienced violence to inform the next survey cycle in 2024-25. Results will become available in 2026.
• Cycle 2 will oversample youth, gender minorities, and Indigenous populations to obtain better disaggregated data.
• GBV continues to have an immeasurable impact on communities in Canada, as evidenced by the recent release of the Mass Casualty Commission's report. National-level data is an invaluable tool in the continued work to address and prevent gender-based violence against women, girls and 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Canada.
  

Key information:

Investment

• With an investment of about $9.6M from the federal Gender-based Violence Strategy, Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) partnered with Statistics Canada (STC) to develop and implement the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS), the first national survey dedicated to measuring self-reported experiences of gender-based violence (GBV) in Canada.
• Cycle 2 of the SSPPS is being funded through $6M of annual ongoing funds from the federal strategy, with some additional funds for oversampling through Budget 2021.
• In 2022-23, WAGE invested $500K to support engagement with stakeholders, as well as subsequent revisions to the SSPPS questionnaire based on these engagement findings.

Results

• Data for the first cycle of the SSPPS were collected in 2018.
• These were the first-ever national data on many forms of GBV in Canada, providing valuable information on self-reported experiences of GBV, including information on who is more likely to experience GBV, on the prevalence and gendered nature of intimate partner violence, barriers to reporting violence, and the social, economic and health impacts of GBV.
• The 2018 SSPPS was also the first large-scale national survey to employ the Government of Canada's new two-step gender identifier, enabling a richer understanding of gender-based violence against transgender Canadians.
• To date, 37 reports and analyses have been published using SSPPS data.
• Since 2019, SSPPS-related published papers and reports have been referenced over 300 times in reports, government documents, and academic literature. These data are instrumental in informing policies and programs to prevent and address GBV and to support survivors and their families.
• Data from future cycles of the SSPPS will provide an even better and more intersectional picture of GBV prevalence, and of trends over time. Cycle 2 of the SSPPS will oversample youth, gender minorities, and Indigenous populations to obtain better disaggregated data.

Project examples

• Of the 37 total reports and analyses published using SSPPS data, there have been 16 main reports on GBV. In summary, they cover the following topics:
  • Initial and general findings about GBV and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada
  • Perceptions about GBV, gender equality and gender expression
  • GBV in the territories
  • Violent victimization of LGBTQ2 populations, Indigenous women and women living in rural and remote areas
  • An overview of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Canada
  • IPV among women with disabilities, young women, visible minority women, Indigenous women, and sexual minority women and men
  • Experiences of physical or sexual abuse in childhood and links to negative outcomes as adults
  • Cybervictimization of young people

Background:

• Under the federal gender-based violence strategy, WAGE received $30.1M over 5 years, starting in 2017-18, to undertake research and data collection, including $17.1M over 5 years, for three new surveys on gender-based violence – the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces (SSPPS); the Survey on Individual Safety in the Postsecondary Student Population (SISPSP); and the Survey on Sexual Misconduct at Work (SSMW). This included new data collection every 5 years on each of these surveys.
• The 3 surveys each went through 1 cycle of data collection: the SSPPS in 2018; the SISPSP in 2019; and the SSMW in 2020. Data and a series of key publications have been released for all 3 surveys. The 3 surveys collected similar information regarding GBV in Canada, among different populations, and as such there was some overlap in both survey content and target populations. The number of respondents to the SSPPS general survey who were students and working people was higher than in the SISPSP and SSMW. These redundancies may have contributed to declining response rates over the course of the three surveys.
• Based on the lessons learned, it was determined that all ongoing funding for the surveys provided to WAGE under the federal GBV Strategy would be directed at the SSPPS, and that the SISPSP and SSMW would be discontinued, with key themes and critical components from those surveys added to the SSPPS. This approach aims to balance the need to collect information with the need to reduce the response burden on Canadians, while protecting their privacy, and to improve data quality.
• Between August and October 2022, WAGE and Statistics Canada conducted engagement with stakeholders to inform the second cycle of the SSPPS. 104 stakeholders from academia, not-for-profit, and government sectors participated through written submissions and small group discussions. Feedback was solicitated on key data points to include in the SSPPS from the 2 other national surveys, which questions could be eliminated from the SSPPS and other elements that could be added or revised in the second cycle of the SSPPS.
• The second cycle of the survey will include detailed questions and analysis of experiences in the workplace and in post-secondary institutions, as well as the general population. The overall sample size of the SSPPS will be increased significantly, which will increase the number of respondents and allow for targeted oversampling of youth, gender minorities, and Indigenous populations to obtain better disaggregated data from this survey. Data collection is expected to take place between fall 2024 and summer 2025, with data anticipated for release in 2026.

Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) Forum of Ministers responsible for the Status of Women

Issue/question:

What is the current status of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) Forum of Ministers responsible for the Status of Women?

Suggested response:

• Women and Gender Equality Canada advances its priorities through strong intergovernmental collaboration, in addition to working across the federal government.
• The Forum's engagement with National Indigenous Leaders and Representatives is key to improve collaboration, identify gaps, and highlight areas of future action related improving the lives of Indigenous women and girls.
• A key accomplishment of the Forum is the launch of the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence during the 40^th.
  Annual Meeting of Federal-Provincial-Territorial (FPT) Ministers in November 2022. The Forum also committed to advance 2SLGBTQI+ equality by reviewing the 2SLGBTQI+ Federal Action Plan to determine possible areas of collaboration.
• The 41^st annual ministerial meeting will be held in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, from July 31-August 2023.

Background:

Federal-Provincial and Territorial Forum

• WAGE plays a leadership role in advancing the Government of Canada's priorities on women and gender equality through strong intergovernmental relations with all provinces and territories.
• The mandate of the FPT Forum of Ministers responsible for the Status of Women is to share knowledge and information and to undertake collaborative initiatives, as agreed upon by consensus, to promote and advance the status of women. This can include gender diversity and gender equality, considering the varying scope of the Ministers' mandates.
• Since 2017, meetings between FPT Ministers and National Indigenous Leaders and Representatives have been held prior to the annual FPT ministerial meetings. These meetings provide a dedicated space to focus on the issues and priorities identified by Indigenous partners. Their engagement in the Forum has provided valuable insight and information to assist federal, provincial, and territorial governments in understanding how best to address issues of mutual concern.
• The Honourable Natalie Jameson, Prince Edward Island's Minister of Education and Early Years and Minister responsible for the Status of Women, is the 2023 co-chair. In this capacity, Prince Edward Island will host the 41^st annual FPT Ministerial Meeting in Charlottetown, from July 31 to August 2, 2023.

National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (GBV)

• The National Action Plan to End GBV was launched on November 9, 2022, during the 40^th Annual Meeting of FPT Ministers responsible for the Status of Women. While the Government of Québec supports the overall objectives of the National Action Plan, it intends to retain full responsibility in this area within its territory.
• Budget 2022 committed $539.3 million over 5 years, starting in 2022-23, to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End GBV. WAGE is negotiating bilateral agreements with all provinces and territories. These bilateral agreements will be flexible and support provincial and territorial governments in addressing their respective challenges, needs, and individual priorities.
• In 2021 and 2022, WAGE co-funded projects worth up to $3.75 million to address GBV in Alberta, British Columbia (2 projects), New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Yukon (2 projects) – and in the Atlantic region as a whole.

World Economic Forum Index

Issue/question:

Canada's ranking in the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Index

Suggested response:

• The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report for 2022 shows us how fragile progress on gender equality can be, and the importance of sustaining our efforts.
  • Globally, we lost a generation of progress on gender equality, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Canada's global ranking remained relatively stable from 2021, at 25^th in the world.
• The World Economic Forum's report shows us that we have work remaining to close gender equality gaps in Canada.
• To ensure progress, the Government of Canada is accelerating efforts to advance gender equality through:
  • the first ever 2SLGBTQI+ Federal Action Plan announced in August 2022,
  • a National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence announced in November 2022;
  • a Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system, and
  • national housing and poverty strategies.
• Across government, we will continue to apply and enhance Gender-based Analysis Plus in decision-making to ensure our initiatives reflect the lived experiences of all people in Canada.

Background:

• The World Economic Forum (WEF) was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests. The Forum strives in all its efforts to demonstrate entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding the highest standards of governance. Moral and intellectual integrity is at the heart of everything it does.
• Since 2006, the WEF has published the Global Gender Gap Index report annually. This report is the longest-standing global index tracking gender equality.
• The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across 4 key dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity; Educational Attainment; Health and Survival; and Political Empowerment.
• At the current rate of progress, based on the WEF research, full global gender parity will take 132 years to achieve, which is 4 years earlier than the 2021 estimate, but still reflects the generational loss that occurred between 2020 and 2021, most prominently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Leading up to 2020, the gap was expected to close within 100 years. The consequences to gender parity were seen across all 4 dimensions.
• In its 2022 report, the WEF ranked Canada 25^th overall, down 1 spot from 2021 while maintaining its overall score of 0.772 (having closed just over 77% of the gender gap in Canada). It also received the following rankings based on the four key dimensions:
  • 1^st for Educational Attainment, with a perfect score of 1, indicating full parity, alongside 24 other countries.
  • 31^st in Political Empowerment, with a score of 0.386. While Canada ranks first in the proportion of women in ministerial positions, progress has not been sufficient in women's representation in parliament and as head of state.
  • 43^rd for Economic Participation and Opportunity, with a score of 0.736. While Canada ranked first in parity among professional and technical workers, it can improve in wage equality and women's representation in senior positions.
  • 94^th in Health and Survival with a score of 0.968, indicating near parity.
  • Canada also ranked first in the regional scoring for North America, where the largest portion of the gender gap has been closed. At this rate, it will take North America around 60 years to reach full gender parity.
  • There is no information available at this time regarding the publication of the next report.

United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) – 67^th Session

Issue/question:

Can you provide an update on the 67^th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women?

Suggested response:

• The 67^th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women was held from March 6 to 17, 2023. UNCSW 67 was the first full in-person session since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
• Canada sent a strong delegation of National Indigenous Leaders and Representatives, Provincial and Territorial Ministers, Parliamentarians, and Civil Society Organizations, and we spent time with them both before and after the session to ensure Canada could obtain and contribute the best value.
• The theme this year was "Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls."
• Notable events included the delivery of Canada's Country Statement, which highlighted the impacts that technology, education, and innovation, have on women and girls in all their diversity, and Canada's commitment to implement Indigenous-led approaches to address gender-based violence.
• Canadian representatives and leaders also hosted highly sought after side events, focused on sharing with the world our work on education and programming in the Global South; addressing Gender-Based Violence and; the Signal for Help.

Background:

• Women and Gender Equality Canada leads preparations for Canada's participation in the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), in collaboration with Global Affairs Canada and other relevant federal departments. The Canadian delegation to the UNCSW is led by the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, and is typically comprised of federal, provincial, and territorial officials; parliamentarians; representatives from civil society organizations (CSOs); as well national Indigenous leaders and representatives and representatives from other government departments.
• The last 3 sessions of the UNCSW were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the UNCSW was cancelled while in 2021 and 2022, most events were held virtually. Canadian CSOs were disappointed to not engage in person but were pleased to take part in some high-level virtual events.
• The 67^th Session of the UNCSW (UNCSW67) was held from March 6 to 17, 2023. Minister Ien and Parliamentary Secretary Jenna Sudds led the Canadian delegation to the 67^th Session.
• This year's priority theme was: "Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls".
• WAGE launched a call for applications to select CSOs with expertise on innovation and technological change and gender to join the Canadian delegation to UNCSW67. This process closed on December 14, 2022. 15 CSOs were selected to be part of the Canadian Delegation. Their expertise was critical as WAGE sought their views on the Agreed Conclusions.
• Both the Minister for Gender Equality and Youth and Parliamentary Secretary participated in side-events and a number of bilateral meetings with counterparts throughout their visits, meeting with representatives from Mongolia, Colombia, the Netherlands, Armenia, Germany, the United States, Rwanda, Liberia, and Fiji. These engagements supported Canada's priorities and exchanges on best practices on gender equality and women's rights both domestically and internationally.
• WAGE engaged with Canadian CSOs and international partners to hostside events related to the priority theme. There were 11 side events that Canada supported through speakers or providing endorsement. In addition, Canada's 2 signature side events included:
  • On March 6^th, in partnership with Colombia and the Province of Prince Edward Island, the event "Exploring the Impacts and Influences of Digital Technology on Gender-Based Violence Work" was held. This timely event higlighed Canada's National Action Plan to End Gender-based Violence.International best practices were also gleaned from panelists, in addition to the challenges and opportunities that technology can provide in preventing and responding to Gender Based Violence.
  • On March 10, Canada partnered with Armenia and the Canadian Women's Foundation, on an event entitled "The Signal for Help: Innovation to Shift from Stigma to Support." This event focused on the use of innovation to achieve gender equality, and showcased the Canadian Women's Foundation's Signal for Help violence prevention tool, including the launch of the Signal for Help Responder Action Guide.

2023-2024 Departmental Plan

Issue/question:

What are the priorities for Women and Gender Equality as described in the 2023-2024 Departmental Plan?

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada is committed to advancing gender equality.
• The Departmental Plan outlines our priorities for the next year.
• In 2023-24, Women and Gender Equality Canada will:
  • Collaborate with other levels of government, Indigenous organizations, the women's movement, private sector, advocates and equality-seeking organizations;
  • Implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence;
  • Facilitate the second phase of the GBV Youth Awareness Campaign;
  • Implement Canada's first federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan;
  • Increase available research, evidence and data to support the application of GBA Plus by all federal departments and agencies;
  • Implement a pilot for the Menstrual Equity Fund; and
  • Serve as a central point for sharing expertise across Canada and with international partners and use this knowledge to inform and support Canada's gender equality priorities.

Background:

• The Departmental Plan (DP) is a ministerial accountability mechanism as well as an annual reporting requirement that serves to communicate departmental expenditure plans, and the organization's priorities, resource requirements and expected results for the fiscal year. This Departmental Plan provides an outline for achieving more equitable outcomes for women and girls, including Indigenous women and the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community, and building capacity to fulfill the department's expanded mandate and its role as a centre of expertise.
• The mandate for Women and Gender Equality Canada is to advance equality with respect to sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression through the inclusion of people of all genders.
• In 2023-2024, the Department will focus on 4 priority areas:

• Over the reporting period, the department will continue to strengthen internal services functions to deliver on priorities such as implementing policies and procedures that support hybrid work; continue to strengthen the organization's digital capacity and operational efficiency; implementing the department's Accessibility Plan, Official Languages Plan, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan, and Mental Health and Wellness Plan; and promoting the Recruitment, Retention and Advancement Plans for Indigenous employees and for Persons with a disability.

2023-2024 Main Estimates

Issue/question:

2023-2024 Main Estimates

Suggested response:

• The Government of Canada continues to work towards creating a more inclusive society, where every person has an equal opportunity to succeed.
• Women and Gender Equality Canada will continue to advance equality through the inclusion of all women and members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities in Canada's economic, social, and political life.
• The Department will receive $290.9M in funding from the 2023-24 Main Estimates.
• The majority of the funding will be used to:
  • support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. Negotiations are underway to establish bilateral funding agreements with the provinces and territories;
  • support the implementation of the first Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan; and
  • support capacity building within women's and equality seeking organizations to further women's participation in Canadian society.

Background:

• The Main Estimates are part of the normal parliamentary approval process to ensure that previously planned Government initiatives receive the necessary funding to move them forward.
• The Main Estimates confirm requests for resources that have already been approved by the Treasury Board.
• The Department will receive $290.9M in total funding for 2023-24:
  • $59.2M in Operating expenditures;
  • $225.4M in Grants and contributions; and
  • $6.3M in Statutory (Employee Benefit Plan, Minister's salary & car).
• The total Grants and Contributions funding of $225.4M to be received in 2023-24 relates to:
  • Advancing Gender Equality in Canada ($94.0M)
  • National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence – Budget 2022 ($75.0M)
  • Advancement of a new National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence – Budget 2021 ($34.1M)
  • Gender-Based Violence – Budget 2017 and 2018 ($9.3M)
  • Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan – Budget 2022 ($7.4M)
  • Advancing 2SLGBTQI+ Equality – Budget 2021 ($3.9M)
  • National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking ($1.7M)
• The following table indicates the variance in the funding received from the previous Main Estimates:

• The reduction in funding of $19.4M is mainly attributed to the sunsetting funding related to Gender-based Violence funding to organizations (Budget 2021) and Sustainability of the women's movement funding (Budget 2018). The decrease is offset by an increase in funding received to advance gender equality in Canada under the Women's Program (Budget 2019), to support provinces and territories in their efforts to implement the recently launched National Action Plan to End Gender-Based Violence (Budget 2022) and to implement the first Federal 2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan (Budget 2022).

The House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women (FEWO)

The Standing Committee on the Status of Women's mandate gives it the broad authority to study the policies, programs, expenditures (budgetary estimates), and legislation of departments and agencies, including the Department for Women and Gender Equality, that conduct work related to the status of women and gender equality.

In the 43^rd Parliament, the committee studied:

• Sexual misconduct within the Canadian Armed Forces;
• Challenges faced by women living in rural communities;
• Women's unpaid work;
• Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on women;
• Midwifery services across Canada; and,
• Implementation of the Pay Equity Act.

During their first meeting of the first session of the 44^th Parliament, members agreed that witnesses who appear before the committee would have 5 minutes to make opening statements. Whenever possible, these opening statements should be submitted to the committee 72 hours in advance. This is followed by a question-and-answer period. Questions will proceed in the following order:

Round 1 – 6 minutes each, Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), Liberal Party of Canada (LPC), Bloc Québécois (BQ), New Democratic Party (NDP)

Round 2 – 5 minutes each, CPC, LPC, then 2.5 minutes each, BQ, NDP, and subsequently another 5 minutes each CPC, LPC

The committee also elected Ms. Karen Vecchio (CPC) as Chair, Ms. Sonia Sidhu (LPC) as Vice-Chair and Ms. Andréanne Larouche (BQ) as Second Vice-Chair.

The committee agreed to undertake the following studies:

Resource Development and Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls (ended on December 8, 2022)

This study was on the relationship between resource development and increased violence against Indigenous women and girls, as it relates to Calls for Justice 13.4 and 13.5 of the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls.

The committee dedicated 9 meetings on this issue, with the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth and Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations having appeared on May 20, 2022, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The study ended on December 8, 2022. The committee tabled its report on December 14, 2022. A Government Response was tabled by March 31, 2023.

C-233 An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Judges Act (violence against an intimate partner) (ended on May 13, 2022)

This private members' bill is sponsored by Anju Dhillon and Pam Damoff from the Liberal Party of Canada. The first reading was on February 7, 2022, and was debated at second reading on April 29, 2022. It was adopted on April 29 and referred to FEWO.

Three meetings of the committee were dedicated to the examination of Bill C-233. The committee heard the sponsors of the bill, the mother and step-father of Keira Kagan, (who was murdered by her father in the case of a separation and who inspired the bill), as well as the Department of Justice.

The committee began and completed clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-233, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Judges Act (violence against an intimate partner) on Friday, May 13, 2022. The bill, as amended, was then reprinted for the use of the House of Commons at report stage.

Intimate Partner Violence (ended on April 5, 2022)

This study was on intimate partner and domestic violence, with a wide range of sub-topics in order for the committee to consider additional ways in which the government can contribute to

the prevention of intimate partner violence and the protection of women and children fleeing violence.

The committee dedicated 17 meetings on this issue. Department officials from Women and Gender Equality Canada appeared on February 4, 2022 alongside officials from the Department of Justice, and the Minister for Women and Gender Equality appeared on April 1, 2022.

The study ended on April 5, 2022. The committee tabled its report on June 17, 2022. A Government Response was tabled October 7, 2022.

Mental Health of Young Women and Girls (ended on March 9, 2023)

This study was on the factors contributing to mental health issues experienced by young women and girls, including, but not limited to, eating disorders, addiction, depression, anxiety, and suicide.

The committee dedicated 13 meetings on this issue, the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth and Minister of Mental Health and Addictions having appeared on November 14, 2022, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

The study ended on March 9, 2023. The committee tabled its report on March 31, 2023, and a government response is required to be tabled.

Human Trafficking

That the committee undertake the following study as its fourth study: That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee undertake a study on human trafficking of women, girls, and gender-diverse individuals for sexual exploitation in Canada, including an examination of how to prevent the trafficking of individuals and ways to improve Canadian law enforcement's capability to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators; that a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 10 meetings be held on this study; and that the committee report its findings to the House.

The last meeting on this study was May 4, 2023, it is expected that the committee will now begin consideration of a draft report.

Women and Girls in Sport

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee undertake, following the completion of witnesses on the study of mental health of young women and girls, a study on sport and the status of women, including the physical and emotional health and safety of women and girls in sport; that the committee allocate 4 meetings to hear testimonies and that it invite to testify Ms. Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Sport for 1 hour, and other witnesses that the committee deems appropriate to invite; that the committee report its observations and recommendations to the House; and that, pursuant to Standing Order 109, the Government table a comprehensive response to the report.

The last meeting on this study was April 27, 2023. The committee is currently in consideration of a draft report.

Menstrual Equity in Canada

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee undertake a study on menstrual equality and period poverty in Canada, including an examination of barriers such as certain access to products, geography, clean water, safe washroom space, affordability, personal trauma, making it difficult for some Canadians to access menstrual products and participate in day-to-day activities, creating period poverty; that a minimum of 3 meetings be held on this study; and that the committee report its findings to the House.

FEWO Members

Conservative Party of Canada:

Karen Vecchio – Chair
Michelle Ferreri
Anna Roberts
Dominique Vien

Liberal Party of Canada:

Sonia Sidhu – Vice-Chair
Emmanuella Lambropoulos
Marc G. Serré
Jenna Sudds
Anita Vandenbeld

Bloc Québécois:

Andréanne Larouche – Vice-Chair

New Democratic Party:

Leah Gazan